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New footage from a recent attack against Coptic churchgoers in <keyword id="66686" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="cairo">Cairo</keyword> appears to show police allowing and even participating in the violence.
First obtained by <a href="http://mcndirect.com/showsubject.aspx?id=45094">Mid-East Christian News</a>, the clip shows police standing by while men attack St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral with guns, machetes, and rocks. At one point (2:30), an officer appears to help a gunman take aim, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/28/new-video-shows-egyptian-police-allowing-attack-on-coptic-cathedral/">notes Fox News</a>.
Two Copts were killed in the April 7 attack, while 84 people were injured, including 11 police officers.
<div class="clear"> </div>


 
There are more than 8 million Egyptian Coptics.
When we were at St Mark's earlier this month — a few days before the attack — it was hard to miss the heavy security and fear of an attack just like this.
Located in the Abbassia District of Cairo, the cathedral is part of a larger compound behind by high walls and arced steel spikes.
The entrance is manned by guards who search every visitor. Despite arriving with local press, we were assigned an escort who didn't leave our side until we left the property.
The Egyptian <keyword id="433314" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Coptic-Church">Coptic church</keyword> faces a tenuous situation following the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood after the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
It does not bode well that police aren't protecting them from violence. Of course, some Egyptian police <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cairo-police-interview-march-tramadol-drugs-tahrir-square-29-2013-3">refuse to stop any crime at all</a>. 
The following photos were taken at St. Mark's six days before the deadly April 7 attack.
<div class="image-container click-to-enlarge" style="width:900px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Robert Johnson/Business Insider" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/517e775669beddbb4e000003-960/cairo%20coptic%20church-7.jpg"></a></div>Robert Johnson/Business Insider</div>
Built when Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria led the Coptic Church from 1959 - 1971, St. Mark's remains the seat of the Coptic Pope and the heart of the order that has more than 8 million Egyptian members.
<div class="image-container" style="width:900px"><div class="image"></div>Robert Johnson/Business Insider</div>
Theological students study here to become Coptic priests and to learn the Coptic language, history, and rituals.
<div class="image-container click-to-enlarge" style="width:900px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Robert Johnson/Business Insider" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/517e775cecad04fb71000004-960/cairo%20coptic%20church-5.jpg"></a></div>Robert Johnson/Business Insider</div>
Also within the compound is the small church, Abba Rowais, which is still used today by followers and visited by tourists. 
<div class="image-container click-to-enlarge" style="width:900px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Robert Johnson/Business Insider" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/517e7763eab8eac825000016-960/cairo%20coptic%20church-3.jpg"></a></div>Robert Johnson/Business Insider</div>
A classic example of Coptic Architecture, St. Mark's holds up to 5,000 worshipers.
<div class="image-container click-to-enlarge" style="width:900px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Robert Johnson/Business Insider" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/517e77606bb3f7b76c000005-960/cairo%20coptic%20church-2.jpg"></a></div>Robert Johnson/Business Insider</div>
Visitors are searched at the entrance before getting into this tranquil place.
<div class="image-container click-to-enlarge" style="width:900px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Robert Johnson/Business Insider" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/517e77696bb3f7b76c00000b-960/cairo%20coptic%20church.jpg"></a></div>Robert Johnson/Business Insider</div>
And the perimeter of the property is lined with high walls topped with imposing steel spikes.

New Footage Of Cairo Cathedral Attack Confirms The Worst Fears Of Egyptian Christians

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="50996" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Saudi-Arabia">Saudi Arabia</keyword>, the home of Islam, has outlawed churches and punished Christian worship for decades.</li><li>The kingdom's 1.4 million Christians meet in secret, but authorities are signaling more openness.</li><li>This is the inside story of the American mission to woo MBS to build the kingdom's first church.</li></ul>On a sunny, cloudless October morning in 2019, twenty-five American Christians gathered at the base of Jabal al-Lawz, an umber-colored mountain in northwest Saudi Arabia. Their leader, the evangelical author and preacher Joel Richardson, took out a Bible he'd brought from back home in Kansas, and started to read out loud.Soon after, he and his congregation began singing hymns, while their hired Saudi tour guides pulled out their smartphones, and started to film.Richardson was leading the first-ever Christian tour to Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam where the public practice of any other religion is famously forbidden.Still, the preacher was taken aback when his phone rang that evening. It was the State Department with a message: "Be careful."Richardson is to this day bemused. "I guess some of the videos went viral on Saudi social media or something," he told Insider in a recent interview.<h2>Saudi Arabia is liberalizing, but Christians still worship underground </h2>The scene at Jabal al-Lawz, which some Christians believe to be the true location of Mount Sinai, illustrates the rapid social change underway in Saudi Arabia, as well as the dangers that still face the <a href="http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/saudi-arabia#/?affiliations_religion_id=11&amp;affiliations_year=2020&amp;region_name=All%20Countries&amp;restrictions_year=2016ns_year=2016">1.4 million Christians</a> living there. In the past decade, those caught in the act of worship have been punished, arrested, jailed, or deported, and the sight of Christians brandishing Bibles and singing hymns in broad daylight would have riled many devout Muslims.In 2014, the kingdom's religious police deported 12 Ethiopian Christians caught worshipping in Dammam in February, and raided a home in September after hearing it was used for church services, <a href="https://www.refworld.org/topic,50ffbce40,50ffbce469,562105556,0,,,SAU.html">the State Department said</a>. In 2011, 35 Christians were arrested at a private gathering in Jeddah, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/30/saudi-arabia-christians-arrested-private-prayer">Human Rights Watch reported</a>, adding that 29 women among them were "subjected to arbitrary body cavity searches."Saudi Arabia's millennial crown prince, <keyword id="2750192" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mohammed-bin-Salman">Mohammed bin Salman</keyword> - known also by his initials, MBS - has reformed his country since taking power in 2017. Yet advances in religious freedom have come slowly, clearly posing a more existential issue for the crown prince to tackle than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/female-solo-traveler-went-to-saudi-arabia-heres-what-i-saw">mass tourism</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-censors-black-pather-first-movie-in-35-years-2018-4">Hollywood blockbusters</a>, or <a href="https://www.insider.com/influencers-criticized-for-saudi-arabian-music-festival-trips-2019-12">music festivals</a>.<div type="image" title="Saudi and foreign media representatives listen to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman remotely addressing a press conference, at the G20 summit's Media Center in the capital Riyadh, on November 22, 2020. (Photo by FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP) (Photo by FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)" height="2464" width="4928" msid="80749477" hostid="261"></div>"There are no churches here," one Christian who has lived in Saudi Arabia all her adult life told Insider. "We choose to lay low in respect to their <keyword id="24504" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="culture">culture</keyword> and religion." The person requested anonymity over fears for her safety, but her identity is known to Insider.As more non-Muslim expats arrive for work, the kingdom has increasingly turned a blind eye to their faith - <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-police-idUSKCN0XA24Y">neutering the religious police</a> in 2016 - while maintaining that Bible preaching or proselytizing Muslims is unacceptable.But MBS has also enforced a near-total silencing of opposition to his rule, comprising <a href="https://www.insider.com/princess-basmah-saudi-arabia-humanitarian-prisoner-mystery-kidnap-mbs-2020-5">arbitrary detentions</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bezos-saudi-hack-report-boycott-amazon-trending-social-media-2020-1">bot armies</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-mbs-lawsuit-denies-ordering-hit-squad-claims-immunity-2020-12">alleged assassinations</a>, <a href="https://www.insider.com/the-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi-2019-10">alleged murder</a>, and widespread efforts to spy on or hack <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-saudi-dissident-suing-breach-whistleblower-deaths-ali-al-ahmed-2020-8">opponents at home</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-hack-jeff-bezos-phone-mohammed-bin-salman-months-gigabytes-2020-1">abroad</a>.The State Department's warning to Richardson was clear: As a Christian in Saudi Arabia, tread carefully.<h2>A yearslong courtship</h2>The US government has for years asked Saudi Arabia to end the ban on churches, with little success."I have gone there and talked to top leaders about opening up a church for these people and they have always said, 'Saudi Arabia is different and it is the land of the two holiest shrines of Islam,'" Nina Shea, a former US Commissioner on International Religious Freedom, told Insider. "The whole country is a shrine, in a sense, and therefore they cannot have a church built."David Rundell, a former chief of mission at the US Embassy in Riyadh, added: "It's something that we have spoken to the Saudis about on numerous occasions." Since MBS's ascension, a group of US evangelical heavyweights have taken the baton. In October 2018, Joel Rosenberg, one of America's prominent evangelical authors, accepted an invitation from the prince to meet him in Riyadh.With Rosenberg came the Rev. Johnnie Moore, a religious advisor to President Donald Trump, and a string of other <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/televangelist">televangelists</a>. (Trump's 2016 victory was largely thanks to evangelical support, and top officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is an evangelical, have close ties to Rosenberg.)It was the first time a group of American evangelicals had entered a Saudi royal court in 300 years and, in a two-hour meeting conducted off the record, MBS "discussed virtually every controversial issue," <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/joel-rosenberg-saudi-arabia-and-iran">Rosenberg later wrote for Fox News</a>, without specifying.Rosenberg said he also asked MBS when he would let a church be built."Not now," MBS replied, as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=526252704506858">Rosenberg later told Israel's i24News</a>. "This would be a gift to al-Qaeda," the prince added, referencing the fact that the terrorist group has often <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/24/world/terrorists-attacks-on-christianity/index.html">targeted Christians</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2010/11/2/al-qaeda-claims-iraq-church-attack">churches</a>.<div type="image" title="A delegation of US evangelicals meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) in Riyadh on September 10, 2018.." height="650" width="1300" msid="80749480" hostid="261"></div>As Saudi Arabia's leaders, Crown Prince Mohammed and his father King Salman are tasked with defending Islam, and the feasibility of a church on their land concerns a disputed saying of the Prophet Muhammad: That no two religions should exist on the Arabian peninsula. Some clerics have argued that the rule only applies to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. According to Rosenberg, MBS also told the 2018 meeting he had "asked my scholars" to define the Arabian peninsula.Not deterred, Rosenberg and his group returned to Saudi Arabia in 2019, and left once again with evidence that change was afoot. The delegation was briefed about the historic existence of churches on the peninsula, Moore told Insider recently, adding: "It is a very significant thing - open conversations about archaeological evidence of churches that existed at the time of the Prophet."There, MBS also acknowledged that the Prophet had "lived peacefully among Jews and Christian monks," wrote attendee Skip Heitzig, the senior pastor of Calvary of Albuquerque, in a subsequent <a href="https://www.assistnews.net/an-evangelical-pastor-and-a-saudi-crown-prince/?fbclid=IwAR2W5mxHqNhc1GTK8bfeGlE4ASsWMhI-AoVhJVuFg3NMzpMxYLOdRFj6mvQ">blog post</a>.The delegation was set to visit MBS once again in 2020, but the pandemic put an end to those plans, a representative for Rosenberg told Insider, adding that a 2021 trip may be derailed for the same reason. Despite the hurdles, the group have kept steady pressure on Saudi officials. On September 28, 2020, Rosenberg and seven other evangelicals from the 2018 and 2019 trips traveled to McLean, Virginia, to dine at the home of Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the US, the representative said.The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, DC, did not respond to Insider's request for comment for this article.<h2>A possible location</h2>Though efforts to secure a church in Saudi Arabia have seemed fruitless to date, experts say it is a matter of when, not if."Definitely, I think it's coming," Prince Abdullah bin Khaled al-Saud, a Saudi academic, told Insider. "Especially in the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh or <keyword id="5920297" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="NEOM">Neom</keyword>."Neom is a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neom-what-we-know-saudi-arabia-500bn-mega-city-2019-9">$500 million, carbon-neutral, 10,230-square-mile</a> megacity due to be completed in 2025, and MBS's pet project. Promotional brochures shared with Insider show Neom would have a diverse population "from a mix of homelands, religions and backgrounds," and a "progressive law compatible with international norms." <div type="image" title="NEOM Saudi" height="960" width="1920" msid="80749481" hostid="261"></div>Ali Shihabi, a member of Neom's advisory board, told Insider: "The issue has been mentioned for Neom," adding that a church was "certainly on the to-do list of the leadership."Rundell, the former diplomat in Riyadh, told Insider that Neom is a feasible location for the first church due to the unique nature of the legal system. "Neom is creeping toward being a non-Saudi entity in many regards," he said.However, others think placing a church in Neom will be meaningless."It's going to be a PR stunt," Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi analyst, told Insider. "You need to have one where most of the Christians living in the big cities are: Jeddah, Riyadh."Shea, the former US commissioner on religious freedom, said that while most Christians living in those cities would find little use for a church hundreds of miles away, "it would be helpful to have a symbol of tolerance ... that isn't a mosque in Neom.""It's something."While Neom is believed to be the leading contender for the first Saudi church, Shihabi said the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh is another likely setting. "That allows an element of 'diplomatic cover' for public consumption," he said.For religious leaders like the Catholic bishop Paul Hinter, whom Pope Francis appointed last May as Apostolic Administrator for the Northern Vicariate of Arabia, it is important that the flock in Saudi Arabia have a church that they can actually access. "My wish is that such churches or worship places be located where the expat workers and employees are living," he told Insider, "and not only in the future showcase city or cities."Rosenberg has not publicly commented on the feasibility of a church in Neom. However, during the 2019 visit, he was taken to see the site, <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1553726/saudi-arabia">telling Arab News</a> he was "eager to come back and bring others when the time is right."<div type="image" title="FILE PHOTO: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announces a zero-carbon city called &quot;The Line&quot; to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY/File Photo" height="1806" width="3612" msid="80749483" hostid="261"></div><h2>The quest for a church in Saudi Arabia is long and contentious</h2>Rumors that Christian leaders of various denominations have negotiated with the Saudis for a church have swirled for decades, long before MBS's rise. Each Christian denomination has its own house of worship, and the ultimate goal is for each to have their own church in Saudi Arabia.In 2008, Catholic Archbishop Paul-Mounged el-Hashem <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/18/religion.saudiarabia">told The Guardian that</a> "discussions are under way" about building a church. And in 1973, Pope Paul VI sanctioned the building of the first Saudi-funded mosque in Rome, believing a reciprocal gesture would come from the kingdom. It did not.In Washington, the necessity for securing a church in Saudi Arabia has gone in and out of fashion as different administrations passed through the White House. "It was quite an important issue during the Bush administration because they had a strong domestic constituency amongst religious conservatives," Rundell said, adding the issue was also important to the Trump administration.President Joe Biden's plans are less clear. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/why-trump-still-ignoring-saudi-arabia-s-brutal-human-rights-ncna989806">Unlike his predecessor</a>, he has promised to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its actions, vowing <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-reviews-us-saudi-relations-pressure-rises-remake/story?id=75475490">during his election campaign</a> to make the kingdom "the pariah that they are." The State Department declined to comment.<div type="image" title="Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi in Riyadh, November 14, 2017. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY." height="928" width="1856" msid="80749485" hostid="261"></div>MBS has shown greater willingness to embrace different religions, having already met with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, Coptic Bishop Ava Morkos, Catholic Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.But before MBS, religious authorities in the Middle East had little success in engaging their Saudi counterparts on the issue.Bishop Paul Hinder, who as a Catholic envoy in the region visited Saudi Arabia every year from 2004 to 2011, told Insider it was "almost impossible to get in touch with civil or/and religious authorities" at the time.The kingdom is now showing willing, Hinder said, though adding that the reality for Christians remains "far from being 'normal.'" Moore added: "I personally believe religious freedom is possible in Saudi Arabia and I didn't believe that before."<h2>MBS will make the call, but some will object</h2>If MBS ends the ban on churches, it will not go unopposed."Is there going to be a pushback? I definitely think there will be," Prince Abdullah, the academic, told Insider. "[But] are they going to be violent? I doubt that because of the efficiency and strength of the security apparatus in the kingdom."One opponent is Sheikh Assim al-Hakeem, a leading Saudi cleric. "Do you see any mosques in the Vatican? No. Likewise, we are not allowed to have any churches," he told <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85qkjxrRoAA">his YouTube channel</a>."These lands are holy lands."<h2>A labor of love</h2>Christian tours to Saudi Arabia, like Richardson's in October 2019, are growing in popularity as the kingdom becomes more tolerant. Living Passages, a leading Christian tour company, is already offering <a href="https://livingpassages.com/christian-tours/saudi-arabia/">four trips in 2021</a>, while others are <a href="https://discoveredsinai.com/trip/midian-tour-arabia/">seizing the moment.</a>"This could be one of the top [Christian] tourist sites in the world, especially in the northwest where they're trying to develop the Neom project," said Ryan Mauro, who leads Christian tours to Saudi Arabia. A church is coming for Saudi Arabia, experts are sure, but the timeline is unclear. Even Rosenberg, who spent hours pressing MBS on religious freedom, is hopeful but not holding his breath."The crown prince's plan, after all, is Vision 2030, not Vision 2020," <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2019/09/19/We-visited-Saudi-Arabia-on-the-eve-of-9-11-the-Kingdom-is-changing-for-good">he wrote</a> after his 2019 visit. For the Christian community, the quest for a church is a labor of love."I should be happy on the day when the hundreds of thousands of Catholics living in Saudi Arabia will have their churches and the possibility to gather and pray in freedom," Bishop Hinder said.

Inside the evangelical mission to build the first church in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam where preaching the Bible can land you in jail

REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanyEgyptians gather in front of a Coptic church that was bombed on Sunday in Tanta, Egypt, April 9, 2017.TANTA/CAIRO (Reuters) - At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb attacks on two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday, in the latest assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants.The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Associated Press reported, which come a week before Coptic Easter and in the same month that Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Egypt.The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city less than 100 kilometers outside Cairo, killed at least 25 and injured at least 78, Egypt's Ministry of Health said.The second, carried out just a few hours later by a suicide bomber in Alexandria, hit the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 11, including three police officers, and injuring 35, the ministry added.Pope Tawadros, who had attended mass at Saint Mark's Cathedral, was still in the building at the time of the explosion but was not harmed, the Ministry of Interior said.REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanyA victim is seen on a stretcher after a bomb went off at a Coptic church in Tanta, Egypt, April 9, 2017.The bombings come as Islamic State's branch in Egypt appears to be stepping up attacks and threats against Christians.In February, Christian families and students fled Egypt's North Sinai province after a spate of targeted killings.Those attacks came after one of the deadliest on Egypt's Christian minority, when a suicide bomber hit its largest Coptic cathedral, killing at least 25. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack.Thousands gathered outside the church in Tanta shortly after the blast, some wearing black, crying, and describing a scene of carnage."There was blood all over the floor and body parts scattered," said a Christian woman who was inside the church."There was a huge explosion in the hall. Fire and smoke filled the room and the injuries were extremely severe," another Christian woman, Vivian Fareeg, said.President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail are set to visit the Tanta site on Sunday and Sisi has ordered an emergency national defense council meeting, state news reported.<h2>'We feel targeted'</h2>REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanyA relative of one of the victims reacts after a church explosion killed at least 21 in Tanta, Egypt, April 9, 2017.A shift in Islamic State's tactics, which has waged a low-level conflict for years in the Sinai peninsula against soldiers and police, to targeting Christian civilians and broadening its reach into Egypt's mainland is a potential turning point in a country trying to prevent a provincial insurgency from spiraling into wider sectarian bloodshed.Egypt's Christian community has felt increasingly insecure since Islamic State spread through Iraq and Syria in 2014, ruthlessly targeting religious minorities. In 2015, 21 Egyptian Christians working in Libya were killed by Islamic State."Of course we feel targeted, there was a bomb here about a week ago but it was dismantled. There's no security," said another Christian woman in Tanta referring to an attack earlier this month near a police training center that killed one policeman and injured 15..Copts face regular attacks by Muslim neighbors, who burn their homes and churches in poor rural areas, usually in anger over an inter-faith romance or the construction of a church.(Additional REUTERS reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Mahmoud Mourad Mohammed Abdellah, and Amina Ismail; Writing by Eric Knecht; editing by Larry King and Alexander Smith)

Twin blasts kill at least 36 at Palm Sunday services in Egypt

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Jacquelyn MartinThe "Passover" exhibit is seen inside the Museum of the Bible, Monday, October 30, 2017, in Washington.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>An Egyptian Christian is suing the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/museum-of-the-bible">Museum of the Bible</a>, alleging that he was racially profiled while visiting the private museum with his church group. </li><li>Erian Melek Hetta says in a court filing that he was interrogated by security officers who later told the FBI that he was a possible terrorist or security threat. </li><li>"The Museum's conduct in this case begs the question: would the Museum of the Bible have racially profiled Jesus?" Hetta's lawyer said in a statement. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-know-about-hobby-lobby-president-backed-museum-of-the-bible-2017-7">The Museum of the Bible</a> is a $500 million private museum founded by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/museum-of-the-bible-washington-hobby-lobby-2017-11">Hobby Lobby president Steve Green.</a> A spokesperson for the museum said it does not comment on ongoing legal matters. </li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-know-about-hobby-lobby-president-backed-museum-of-the-bible-2017-7">The Museum of the Bible</a> is facing a lawsuit after an Egyptian visitor endured what he called a "Kafkaesque nightmare" at the museum. According to a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday, 30-year-old Erian Melek Hetta visited the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, in January 2018. Hetta, who was born in Egypt and says he came to the United States due to religious persecution for his Christian faith, is suing the Museum of the Bible alleging racial profiling, discrimination, and humiliation. Hetta claims he was racially profiled and interrogated by security officers when visiting the museum. Further, the complaint states that the Museum of the Bible continued to investigate Hetta and advised the FBI that he was a possible terrorist, security, or criminal threat. "Mr. Hetta's visit to the Bible Museum turned into a Kafkaesque ordeal of humiliation, detention, interrogation and ultimately an FBI counter-terrorism investigation caused by the Museum's false reporting," Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Hetta's lawyer and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, said in a statement. "The Museum's conduct in this case begs the question: would the Museum of the Bible have racially profiled Jesus?" Verheyden-Hilliard added.The Museum of the Bible is a $500 million private museum that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/museum-of-the-bible-washington-hobby-lobby-2017-11">opened in November 2017 in Washington, DC.</a> Much of the funding came from the Green family, led by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green, who is the museum's chairman. "We are aware of the claim but do not comment on ongoing legal matters," the Museum of the Bible said in a statement to Business Insider. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-know-about-hobby-lobby-president-backed-museum-of-the-bible-2017-7">The $500 million Museum of the Bible founded by Hobby Lobby's controversial president has admitted it displayed fake Dead Sea Scrolls. Here's what it's like to visit.</a><h2>A 'Kafkaesque ordeal'</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Museum of the BibleThe Museum of the Bible.</div></div></div>At the center of the lawsuit is Hetta's visit to the Museum of the Bible on January 20, 2018. In the complaint, Hetta claims officers interrupted him as he was socializing with his church group and brought him to a different room. The officers allegedly questioned why Hetta had been sitting alone on a bench earlier in the day. Hetta says he told them he was waiting for a friend, who did not have a cell phone and was running late.According to the filing, officers further questioned Hetta - who is a Coptic Christian - <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/who-are-egypts-coptic-christians-and-what-do-they-believe_us_58ebc537e4b0c89f912058d5">about his church's denomination and whether it was "Christian."</a> A plainclothes officer told Hetta he was "suspicious because of where he was sitting," on a bench near the museum entrance, the filing states."Without prompting, [a different security officer] blurted out that they were 'not racially profiling' him," reads the filing. After 20 to 25 minutes, Hetta says, he was allowed to leave and return to his church group meet-up. The next day, he reported the incident as discrimination in public accommodation to the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. Meanwhile, the Museum of the Bible continued to investigate Hetta, including reviewing his social media profiles, creating a dossier on him, and alerting the FBI, the court filing states. "The Museum falsely advised the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that Mr. Hetta was a possible terrorist, security and/or criminal threat," reads the complaint. "The Federal Bureau of investigation then opened a counterterrorism investigation into Plaintiff Hetta." The complaint states that the FBI questioned Hetta's housemate and landlord and visited his residence. Hetta says in the court filing that he met with an FBI agent who stated he was "looking into concerns that the Museum of the Bible had asserted about Mr. Hetta related to terrorism." According to Hetta, the agent told him that the Museum of the Bible advised that Hetta might be a terrorist because of, among other reasons, his legal names: Hetta and Melek. The lawsuit alleges that the Museum of the Bible, as well as employees who interacted with Hetta, violated federal civil-rights laws and the Fourth Amendment. In the complaint, Hetta requests - among other things - that the Museum of the Bible develop new policies to prevent discrimination, destroy any files created related to him, and award compensatory and punitive damages.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/future-of-retail-ai?IR=T&amp;utm_source=businessinsider&amp;utm_medium=ctgr&amp;utm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_content=ecommerce_ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_campaign=ecommerce_ctgr_leadgen_future-of-retail-ai"></a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hm-zara-uniqlo-fast-fashion-spend-money-clothes-2019-1">Sneaky ways stores like H&amp;M, Zara, and Uniqlo get you to spend more money on clothes</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

The Museum of the Bible faces a racial-discrimination lawsuit from an Egyptian Christian who says the museum reported him to the FBI as a possible terrorist threat

Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via APIn this image from video provided by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea, Friday, April 7, 2017.LUCCA, Italy (AP) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering Monday for a meeting given urgency by the chemical attack in Syria and the U.S. military response, with participants aiming to pressure Russia to end its support for President Bashar Assad.Last week's nerve gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which killed more than 80 people, stirred President Donald Trump to strike for the first time at Assad's forces. U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which the U.S. believes the attack was launched.U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday at the site of a World War II-era Nazi massacre in central Italy that the United States is rededicating itself to hold to account "any and all" who commit crimes against innocent people.Tillerson accompanied Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano to Santa'Anna di Stazzema, a site of Nazi atrocities where 560 civilians, including some 130 children, were killed during World War II.Alfano said the massacre site was a reminder that "peace is not a given. ... That is why we are here to work all together for peace and liberty."Over the weekend, Alfano said that Europe's broad support for the U.S. military strikes had contributed to a "renewed harmony" between the United States and its partners ahead of the first meeting of G-7 foreign ministers since Donald Trump took office in January."We need to remember that not 10 years ago, but 100 or 120 days ago, the concern in Europe was that the United States and the EU were moving apart," Alfano told Sky TG24 Sunday. "I welcome this renewed harmony."Officials are hoping that this can be leveraged to bring a new diplomatic push to end the 6-year-old civil war in Syria.The meeting in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca also brings German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, along with other G-7 foreign ministers, at a moment when the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Korea's persistent ballistic missile tests.AP Photo/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisPresident Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, April 9, 2017.The meeting also comes amid an ongoing terror threat that was underscored by the deadly Palm Sunday bombing of Coptic churches in Egypt claimed by the Islamic State group, and another truck attack on European soil, this time in Stockholm, on Friday.The United States is fighting Islamic State group militants in Syria but had previously avoided striking government forces, largely out of concern about being pulled into a military conflict with Russia.The chemical attack has sent a new chill through relations between the West and Moscow, which denies Syrian forces used chemical weapons.Russia has plans to put forward a proposal on Monday for an independent and impartial investigation of the attack, said a spokesman in Berlin for the German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.The spokesman, Martin Schaefer, said German viewed it as "a good and important sign."Russia was kicked out of the club of industrialized nations, formerly the G-8, after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and assistance for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.Britain's Johnson, who had been due to visit Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of Monday's G-7 meeting, canceled the trip at the last minute, saying the chemical attack had "changed the situation fundamentally."He said that instead he would work with the United States and other G-7 nations "to build coordinated international support for a cease-fire on the ground and an intensified political process."Tillerson is due to travel to Russia after the G-7 gathering, and Johnson said he will deliver a "clear and coordinated message to the Russians."REUTERS/Abed Kontar/File photoCivil Defence members wear gas masks near damaged ground in Ibleen village from what activists said was a chlorine gas attack, on Kansafra, Ibleen and Josef villages, Idlib countryside, Syria May 3, 2015.Washington has sent mixed signals about whether it shares its allies' determination that Assad must be removed from power.After the chemical attack, Trump said his attitude toward Assad "has changed very much" and Tillerson said "steps are underway" to organize a coalition to remove him from power.In a round of television interviews that aired Sunday, though, Tillerson said the top U.S. priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.Alfano was cautious on the question of whether to push Assad out, saying that decision should be up to the Syrians."I have to say, the Libya experiment did not go well. We are still paying the price," Alfano said, referring to the lawlessness that has ensued since the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the subsequent flow of migrants to Europe via Italy._____Colleen Barry in Milan and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-windows-10-vs-apple-mac-os-x-2017-3">I switched from Mac to Windows and I'm never going back - here's why</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

G7 leaders to push Russia to stop backing Syria's Assad

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image">REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanyA torn poster of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi is seen as riot police clear the area of his supporters, at Rabaa Adawiya square, where they had been camping, in Cairo August 14, 2013.</div></div>CAIRO (Reuters) - <keyword id="6354912" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Egypt">Egypt</keyword>'s Muslim Brotherhood called on followers to march in protest in Cairo on Thursday, after <a href="https://twitter.com/ddknyt/status/367947551968071680">at least</a> 450 people were killed in a security crackdown on the Islamist movement that has left the most populous Arab nation polarized and in turmoil.
Cairo and other cities hit by shocking violence on Wednesday were largely calm overnight, after the army-installed government declared a month-long state of emergency and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the capital and 10 other provinces.
But whether the powerful military can keep a lid on the fury felt by millions of supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi, whom it deposed on July 3, is unclear.
The next potential flashpoint comes later on Thursday, after Mursi's Brotherhood movement called for marches in the capital to protest against the deaths.
His Islamist followers clashed with police and troops who used bulldozers, teargas and live ammunition on Wednesday to clear out two Cairo sit-ins that had become a hub of Brotherhood resistance to the military.
The clashes spread quickly, and a health ministry official said on Thursday that 421 people were killed and more than 3,500 injured in fighting in Cairo, Alexandria and numerous towns and cities around the mostly Muslim nation of 84 million.
It was the third mass killing of Islamist demonstrators since Mursi was deposed six weeks ago, but the scale of Wednesday's bloodshed took many by surprise and signaled that the military was determined to tighten its grip on the country.
The decision to forcibly clear the sit-ins defied Western appeals for restraint and a negotiated settlement to Egypt's political crisis, and there has been swift condemnation from many, though not all, countries.
In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called on Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to convene quickly and act after what he described as a massacre in Egypt.
"I am calling on Western countries. You remained silent in Gaza, you remained silent in Syria ... You are still silent on Egypt. So how come you talk about democracy, freedom, global values and human rights?" he told a news conference.
But the United Arab Emirates, one of several Gulf Arab states unsettled by Mursi's victory in a 2012 election, expressed support for the crackdown, saying the Egyptian government had "exercised maximum self-control".
TENTS STILL SMOULDER
At the site of one of the Cairo sit-ins, garbage collectors cleared still-smoldering piles of burnt tents on Thursday. Soldiers dismantled the stage at the heart of the protest camp. A burnt-out armored vehicle stood abandoned in the street.
The Muslim Brotherhood said the true death toll was far higher, with a spokesman saying 3,000 people had been killed in a "massacre". It was impossible to verify the figures independently given the extent of the violence. The state of emergency and curfew restored to the army powers of arrest and indefinite detention it held for decades under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, ousted in a 2011 popular uprising.
The army insists it does not seek power and acted last month to remove Mursi in response to mass demonstrations calling for his resignation.
It has installed an interim government to implement plans for fresh elections in around six months, but efforts to restore democracy have been overshadowed by a political crisis that has deeply divided Egyptians between pro- and anti-Mursi camps.
Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who lent liberal political support to the ousting of Egypt's first freely elected president, resigned in dismay at the use of force instead of a negotiated end to the six-week stand-off.
Other liberals and technocrats in the temporary government did not follow suit. Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi spoke in a televised address of a "difficult day for Egypt" but said the government had no choice but to order the crackdown to prevent anarchy spreading.
"We found that matters had reached a point that no self-respecting state could accept," he said.
CHURCHES TARGETED
Violence rippled out from Cairo, with Mursi supporters and security forces clashing in the cities of Alexandria, Minya, Assiut, Fayoum and Suez and in Buhayra and Beni Suef provinces.
Islamists staged revenge attacks on Christian targets in several areas, setting fire to churches, homes and businesses after Coptic Pope Tawadros gave his blessing to the military takeover that ousted Mursi, security sources and state media said.
Churches were attacked in the Nile Valley towns of Minya, Sohag and Assiut, where Christians escaped across the roof into a neighboring building after a mob surrounded and hurled bricks at their place of worship, state news agency MENA said.
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told a news conference 43 members of the police force were killed in the clashes.
He vowed to restore Mubarak-era security after announcing, in a statement last month that chilled human rights campaigners, the return of notorious political police departments that had been scrapped after the 2011 revolution.
Wednesday's official death toll took the number of people killed in political violence since Mursi's fall to well over 700, mostly Islamist supporters of the deposed president.
The United States, the European Union and the United Nations condemned the violence and called for the lifting of the state of emergency and an inclusive political solution to the crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the bloodshed in Egypt "deplorable" - a word U.S. diplomats rarely use - and urged all sides to seek a political solution.
A U.S. official told Reuters that Washington was considering cancelling a major joint military exercise with Egypt, due this year, after the latest violence, in what would be a direct snub to the Egyptian armed forces.
The "Bright Star" exercise has been a cornerstone of U.S.-Egyptian military relations and began in 1981 after the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel. The United States has already halted delivery of four F-16 warplanes in a signal of its displeasure.
(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla, Alexander Dziadosz, Michael Georgy and Tom Perry in Cairo, and Arshad Mohammed and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Michael Georgy)

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