The State of Arab Christians

On the eve of January 7 – Christmas eve according to the Orthodox Christian calendar – six Coptic Christians and one Muslim guard were shot dead by gunmen as they left midnight mass in Nagaa Hammadi in southern Egypt.

It’s not entirely clear whether the crime was religiously-motivated. Often the motives are conflated with other issues, like land disputes or socially unacceptable romantic relations between Christian women and Muslim men, even though such events are unheard in most parts of Egypt. Still, the latest events beg the question: What is happening in the Arab world, long known for strong Muslim-Christian harmony?

The opening of the article. The full text is at Daily News Egypt.