Youm-7, one of Egypt’s popular secular media that was recently attacked by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, reports that at least seventeen Christian bookstores in Shubra, one of Cairo’s largest districts, are under threat for selling Christian icons and statues. The storeowners, who are “in panic,” say they received threat letters by mail demanding that they stop selling their “idolatry.”

One of Shubra’s Christian stores threatened for “trading in idolatry.”
Among other things, the letters, copies of which were presented to Youm-7, say “We warn you Nassara [Koran's derogatory term for Christians] to cease your foul trade, whereby you sell filthy idols.”
Accordingly, the bookshop owners rushed to the police stations to file reports in the hopes that the identities of those sending such letters be revealed. The report concludes by saying not much has been done to secure the stores and that only one security agent has been sent to patrol, and only during morning hours.




Raymond Ibrahim is a Middle East and Islam specialist and author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings have appeared in a variety of media, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, World Almanac of Islamism, and Chronicle of Higher Education; he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, NPR, Blaze TV, and CBN. Ibrahim regularly speaks publicly, briefs governmental agencies, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and testifies before Congress. He is a Shillman Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center; a CBN News contributor; a Media Fellow, Hoover Institution (2013); and a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow, Middle East Forum . Ibrahim’s dual-background -- born and raised in the U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East -- has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former.