Seth Udinski, FISM News
FISM has reported multiple cases of Christian persecution throughout the world, especially in the Muslim-dominated regions of the world, in 2021. Another development of Christian persecution broke out of Egypt over the weekend, involving one of the oldest Christian sects in the world.
International Christian Concern (ICC) ran a report last week revealing the plight of Egyptian Coptic Christian students who are under siege for wearing visible reminders of their Christian faith in schools. The Egyptian Coptic sect of Christianity is one of the oldest in the Christian faith. Coptic Christians traces their denominational heritage back to Mark, the first-century missionary companion of Paul and Barnabas and author of the New Testament gospel account that bears his name.
According to the report, these young believers are being phyisically assaulted and beaten at the hands of fellow students and, in some especially horrid cases, teachers. The reason is that they wear cross necklaces and other overtly-Christian items on their bodies. The report told of one incident from earlier this month,
In one incident in early November, a female teacher reportedly attacked a Christian student, then encouraged other students to do the same, take his cross pendant from him and destroy the cross. According to local sources, the school is an elementary and middle school. Students came home and reported the incidents to their Coptic parents, who took action against the school. It is common in the Coptic Christian community in Egypt for believers to tattoo a cross on their wrist or to wear necklaces or bracelets with a cross.
The report reveals that school administrators had banned its Christian students from wearing crosses, thereby affirming that the target against Christian students is organized from the top. At this time, it is unknown if the school’s leadership has responded in defense of the persecuted believing students.