Local authorities decided to close down the Saint Catherine Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on January 5 and January 6, when Christmas church services are held according to the Orthodox calendar.[i] The general directorate of tourist police further ordered all tourist companies not to lead tours to the historic monastery.
Although the official reason for temporarily closing down the building and canceling Christmas is due to the establishment of a plan for the development of the surrounding area as befits a World Heritage Site, it is believed that the order came as a precautionary safeguard against Islamic terrorists targeting the site and any foreign tourists visiting it during the Christmas holiday.
Built in the mid sixth century, the Saint Catherine Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries in the world; additionally, it has the oldest continuously operating library in existence, with many precious manuscripts.
Although surrounded by high, thick walls, the Christian site has increasingly come under terror threats, particularly as the Sinai Peninsula is a hotbed of jihadi activity, where Coptic Christians are openly persecuted and sometimes slaughtered.
The monastery was targeted last April, when unknown gunmen opened fire on an Egyptian police checkpoint guarding it, killing one policeman and wounding four. The Islamic State later claimed the attack.
Notes:
[i] Because most Orthodox Churches, including the Coptic Church, observe Christmas on January 7, church services are held the night before, on January 6, into midnight January 7.
The Middle East is a war zone, and non-Muslims have had targets on their backs for the last 1400 years. Christians who remain in Muslim-majority lands should expect unfair treatment if not outright aggression every step of the way, and in the short term things are likely to get worse before they get better.
Brute force is the only way to control these savages you are right.
Brute force is repugnant to traditional Western sensibilities, but it seems to work in the perpetually volatile and unstable Middle East. Our mistake was assuming that the dictators were the problem. By removing them, we only made it worse.
This is the one place I never managed to get to when I last visited Egypt in 1987. What is happening today was unthinkable then. Coptic Christians were treated well and respected. You could tell the difference between Muslim Arabs and native Egyptians then. The Arabs were grubby, loud and trailed after women. They didn’t scare me, they are just disgusting it showed in my facial expressions.
Yet STILL NOT A WORD from the USELESS Marxist Pope &;the unspeakable idiot Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury.