Pray for the Copts.
Via MEMRI:
Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian priest Yohanna Qulta, deputy patriarch of the Coptic Catholic church:
Interviewer: When I asked if the Copts were thinking of leaving Egypt, you said: “Absolutely.”
Yohanna Qulta: Of course. The fear we encounter on TV and in national newspapers, which I don’t want to name. . . Actually, why not? Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar. . . They run large headlines, quoting the Salafis as saying that the Copts should either leave Egypt or pay the jizya poll tax in submission.
Interviewer: Do you Copts fear these Salafi statements? If they do come to power and instate the jizya poll tax — I’m not saying that this will happen, but let’s assume this for the sake of argument — how will you respond?
Yohanna Qulta: We will oppose this fiercely, to the point of martyrdom. Returning to the Middle Ages is out of the question. We will not turn to the UN or to the Western countries, but to Al-Azhar, to Islamic moral values, and to the vast majority of Muslims, who are moderate. Gone are the days of paying the jizya, the days of slavery. What the Salafis and the others need to understand is that the religious state has failed, from East to West, in every era, both in Christian and Muslims countries.
The Church was liberated the day religious was separated from state. Has the Catholic Church collapsed in Europe, or in France? No, it still exists, despite the separate of Church and state.