• Egypt's Coptic Christians say they are 'no longer safe'

    Amr Nabil / AP file

    Egyptian Muslim women hold a cross in support of Christians during a memorial march in Cairo for Christians who were killed during deadly clashes with Muslims in April.

    By Charlene Gubash, Producer, NBC News

    CAIRO – Thousands of Egypt’s Coptic Christians are fleeing to Europe, the United States and elsewhere rather than face mounting discrimination at home.

    Copts, Egypt’s ancient Christian community, are the country’s largest minority, making up nearly 10 percent of its 85 million people. 

    But clashes between Christians and Muslims have become more frequent since the ouster of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 uprising – some say due to a breakdown of government security. Many Copts feel Egypt's Islamist-led government is not doing enough to protect them from religious hate crimes and inflammatory rhetoric – so many are leaving.

    “My sister in California wanted a better life for her and her two daughters,” explained Marianne Aziz, a 25-year-old pharmacist. “There was a big fight between us and our Muslim neighbors over our parking place ... . They cut my brother-in-law’s face with a knife.”

    Aziz said that after that incident, “My sister felt she was no longer safe anymore. She got a hospital report on her husband’s injuries and a police report and when they went to the U.S., she immediately [applied for] asylum.” 

    Egyptian now ranks as the second highest nationality to receive asylum in the United States – although it is uncertain how many are Copts because immigration statistics do not include religious affiliation, many of the asylum seekers are believed to be Christian.

    The number of Egyptians receiving asylum in the U.S. has jumped more than five-fold in recent years. In 2010, the year before the revolution, just 531 Egyptians received asylum in the U.S.; in 2012, that number jumped to 2,882, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s statistical data for 2012. 

    Georgia, the former Soviet republic, has also become a popular destination for Egyptians because it’s relatively easy to obtain residence. A Georgian consular officer said that about 150 Egyptians apply for asylum every week.

    And the Netherlands has made it easier for Copts to claim asylum by no longer demanding proof that asylum seekers have sought official protection from persecution. The Dutch ambassador said in a TV interview that his government was prompted to make the process easier because of reports of persecution of Copts and a lack of adequate government protection.

    Eight people were killed in sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in April, including attacks on Cairo’s St. Mark’s Cathedral, prompting rare criticism of President Mohammed Morsi by the Coptic Pope Tawadros II for not protecting the church.

    Khaled Elfiqi / EPA file

    Pope Tawadros II, head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church, leads the Easter Mass at the Coptic Cathedral of Saint Marcos in Cairo on May 4.

    Heba Morayef, Regional Human Rights Watch director, worries that extremists are now free to encourage discrimination on TV. “It’s very scary because of the sudden uptick in violence, compounded by the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood has in no way tried to reign it back and has at times participated.”

    Controversy ensued earlier this year after the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading cleric advised Muslims to refrain from wishing Christians a Happy Easter, saying the holiday is un-Islamic.

    Brotherhood leaders have also continued to be promoted in the government, despite clearly anti-Coptic rhetoric.   

    “You share this country with us,” Brotherhood stalwart Safwat Hegazi threatened Copts after anti-Morsi demonstrations turned violent last December. “But there are red lines, and one red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Morsi. Whoever splashes water on that, we will spill his blood.”

    Despite his provocative language, Hegazi was recently appointed to Egypt’s National Council on Human Rights.

    The government has also halted any spread of Christianity. Only the president has the right to grant permits to build churches in Egypt, yet Morsi has given permission for just one new church to be built during in his first year in office. By comparison, in 2010, former President Hosni Mubarak allowed 16 new churches to be built. 

    Ishaq Ibrahim researches religious freedom for the well-respected Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights organization. He warned of a growing trend where Christians are brought to trial for insulting Islam because there is a lack of clarity around the laws. As a result, he pointed out, “There were 36 cases during 2011 and 2012: 35 for insulting Islam and one for insulting Christianity.”   

    The latest U.S. Report on Religious Freedom admonished the government for failing to provide security to Copts. 

    “While…religious minorities mostly worshiped without harassment, the government generally failed to prevent, investigate or prosecute crimes against members of religious minority groups, especially Coptic Christians.” 

    Marianne Aziz has drawn the same conclusion. She looks forward to the day when she can join her sister in the California. Aziz turned down a good job with a pharmaceutical company because it would have required travel to remote areas and she feared kidnapping, a growing phenomenon according to Coptic activists.

    “If I had to work in a far-away place, I might not come home again. I can’t live in a country that is not safe,” Aziz said.

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  • Father to 'all Arabs': Egyptians mourn death of Coptic pope

    Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images

    Pallbearers carry the coffin of Pope Shenouda III out of Saint Mark's cathedral during his funeral service in Cairo on Tuesday.

    By NBC News, msnbc.com and news services

    CAIRO – Thousands of mourners dressed in black gathered in Cairo on Tuesday for the funeral of Egypt's Orthodox Christian Pope Shenouda, who was revered my millions throughout the country as a leader for all Egyptians.

    Copts felt like "they were nobodies" after Shenouda's death, mourner Mina Hany Naeem, 17, told NBC News.

    "With him I felt like I was wearing white and everyone looked at me, and without him I feel naked and everyone is looking at me," he said. "When he was Pope nobody ever said Muslim and Christian – we were all Egyptians."

    Shenouda, who died on Saturday at age 88, promoted religious harmony, winning respect among the Muslim majority, but his last years witnessed a growth in sectarian tension that worsened with the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last year.

    "Pope Shenouda was a father to us all, to all Arabs, a very patriotic person," mourner Saber Farag Saleh, a 50-year-old construction engineer, told NBC News. "He protected us from divisions. He taught us to love the other and all religions."

    Taha Belal / NBC News

    "The Pope was loved by everyone, we were all nobodies without him," Mina Hany Naeen, a 17-year-old student, told NBC in Cairo on Tuesday.

    Religious figures from several countries, including a Catholic delegation from the Vatican, and foreign ambassadors massed in the Orthodox Cathedral as long-bearded Coptic priests wearing bulbous black miters prayed over Shenouda's body lying in an open coffin, a golden miter upon his head and a gold-tipped staff in his hand.

    Christians gather to bid farewell to Egypt's Pope Shenouda III

    A delegation from the ruling military council and several candidates for Egypt's upcoming presidential elections attended the funeral. Security was tight, with dozens of police and army trucks scattered around the cathedral and plainclothes police posted on bridges and in streets nearby.

    The prayers were led by Bishop Bakhomious, head of the church of Bahaira, a district in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, who will temporally hold the post of pope for two months until a new leader is elected.

    'Fix all problems with prayer'
    Some mourners worried who would follow Shenouda, who spent his final years trying to comfort a community disturbed by the rise of political Islam.

    "It's a big loss, he looked after us all, it's a big loss for all Christians and Muslims," teacher Jaqueleen Mikhail, 25, told NBC News. "Nobody will ever be like the Pope Shenouda, he was humble and full of love and wise. He would fix all problems with prayer."

    Egypt has seen less of the religious violence and discrimination that prompted members of ancient Christian communities to migrate from Iraq and other Arab countries.

    But Coptic Christians, who comprise about a tenth of Egypt's 80 million people, have long complained of discrimination and in the past year stepped up protests, which included calls for new rules that would make it as easy to build a church as a mosque.

    Taha Belal / NBC News

    "Pope Shenouda was a father to us all, to all Arabs, a very patriotic person," mourner Saber Farag Saleh, a 50-year-old construction engineer, told NBC News in Cairo on Tuesday.

    Shenouda strongly opposed Islamic militancy but strove to quell growing anger among Copts at Islamic extremism, attacks on churches and sectarian clashes often sparked by inter-faith romances and church building permits.

    Photo blog: Egypt's Coptic Christians mourn the death of Pope Shenouda III

    Many Muslims were among the mourners. He was a familiar figure for generations of Egyptians and Muslim Egyptians respected him as a staunch nationalist, an outspoken critic of Israel and a social conservative.

    Dr. Essam Arian,  a member of parliament and the deputy of the Freedom and Justice Party (the Muslim Brotherhood's political party) said that he was planning to attend the funeral. "We hope the next pope can continue in the path of  reconciliation.  History will judge him.”

    Sheikh Zachariah Mohammed Marzouq, the second Imam of Al Azhar Mosque, echoed those comments. 

    “He was a wise man and a national figure.... He managed by his wisdom to dissolve any kind of conflict between the sects of the nation, the Christians and the masses of Muslims," said Marzouq. "He was a man inviting peace and love and brotherhood.  We send our condolences to our brothers the Copts on the loss of Pope Shenouda."

    Thousands have paid their respects at the cathedral since he died. For much of the time, Shenouda's body was put in a seated position on a ceremonial throne dressed in gold and red embroidered vestments.

    On Sunday, the cathedral had to close its doors several times in an attempt to contain the crowds. Two mourners died killed in the crush, medical sources said.

    The burial is expected to take place at the Wadi el Natrun monastery in the desert northwest of Cairo, where the late pope had requested he be interred.

    NBC News' Charlene Gusbash and Taha Belal, msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Egypt's military: On alert for New Year's attack on Christians

    By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

    Update at 6:25 p.m. ET: Facebook has apparently taken down the account of at least one group threatening a New Year's attack on Egyptian Christians. An Arab-language Facebook page (not linked to in the story but monitored by msnbc.com reporters) no longer loads.

    Original post: The Egyptian military said Friday that it was increasing security at churches across the country before the anniversary of a deadly New Year's attack on Coptic Christians in Alexandria.

    The heightened state of alert before New Year's celebrations and the Coptic Christmas season came as anonymous threats against the Copts circulated on Facebook.

     One of those on Friday threatened a suicide bombing of an unnamed church in Egypt and said that the church's name would be posted at 11:50 p.m. local time Saturday just before the attack. A spokesman for Facebook said it was aware of the threat "and is investigating it."

    The Alexandria attack occurred just after midnight Jan. 1 as worshippers left a New Year's Mass. More than 20 people were killed, making it the worst violence against the Christian minority in Egypt in a decade.

    The military said that it would work closely with internal security forces, revolutionary youth groups and various political forces inside Egypt to ensure the safety of Christian worshippers across the country.

    In addition to New Year's Eve Masses, Egyptian Copts are preparing for the Orthodox Church's Christmas on Jan. 7. This year's Christmas celebrations and mass at the cathedral in Cairo will be attended by a senior delegation from the Muslim Brotherhood. It's the first time in nearly 30 years that the church has invited the Islamist group -- outlawed during the Mubarak regime -- to attend the Mass and celebrations.

    NBC News correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin reported from Amman, Jordan. NBC's Jacob Keryakes and msnbc.com's Suzanne Choney contributed to this report.