The gunman tried to enter the church in Cairo After nine people were killed in a gun attack on the Coptic Christians in Egypt in Egypt, the question of how safe these minorities of that country were. A gunman in the Helwan area of South Cairo first attacked a shop owned by Coptic Christians and killed two brothers. Then he tried to force him into entering a church, he fired him - so that six civilians and two policemen were killed.
The so-called Islamic State claimed that one of them 'soldier' attacked this. More than 100 Christians have been killed in many attacks in Egypt in the past year, and most of the attacks have claimed responsibility for the local branch of Islamic State. In 2017, at least 52 Christians were killed in three attacks in Tanta, Alexandria and Sinai. In December last year, 29 people were killed in a bomb blast during an operation in Cairo's Attictic church.
10 percent of the population is Christian. Most of them are Coptic After 50 people were killed in an attack in St. Minna Manasti in April, Father Eliha Elva Mina said that the history of the Christians is like this. The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State says that Christians are 'the most preferred victims'. In Alexandria, the oldest church of Coptic Christians carried out the IS attacks in St. Mark's Cathedral.
More trouble for them, group tension, and long-term discrimination. Last year a new law was passed in Egypt - which has made it very difficult to establish new churches, says Isaac Abraham Ibrahim of Religious Freedom If Christians gather to pray at home, there is a danger that their homes may be set on fire.