In the year of our Lord 286, Diocletian, the thirty-third from Augustus, and chosen emperor by the army, reigned twenty years, and created Maximian, surnamed Herculius, his colleague in the empire. In their time, one Carausius, of very mean birth, but a man of great ability and energy, being appointed to guard the sea-coasts, then infested by the Franks and Saxons, acted more to the prejudice than to the advantage of the commonwealth, by not restoring to its owners any of the booty taken from the robbers, but keeping all to himself; thus giving rise to the suspicion that by intentional neglect he suffered the enemy to infest the frontiers. When, therefore, an order was sent by Maximian that he should be put to death, he took upon him the imperial purple, and possessed himself of Britain, and having most valiantly conquered and held it for the space of seven years, he was at length put to death by the treachery of his associate Allectus. The usurper, having thus got the island from Carausius, held it three years, and was then vanquished by Asclepiodotus, the captain of the Praetorian guards, who thus at the end of ten years restored Britain to the Roman empire.

Meanwhile, Diocletian in the east, and Maximian Herculius in the west, commanded the churches to be destroyed, and the Christians to be persecuted and slain. This persecution was the tenth since the reign of Nero, and was more lasting and cruel than almost any before it; for it was carried on incessantly for the space of ten years, with burning of churches, proscription of innocent persons, and the slaughter of martyrs. Finally, Britain also attained to the great glory of bearing faithful witness to God. (Ecclesiastical History of England by the Venrable Bede, Book 1, Chapter VI)

The account given us by an eminent primitive writer, Clement of Alexandria, ought not to be overlooked; that, as James was led to the place of martyrdom, his accuser was brought to repent of his conduct by the apostle’s extraordinary courage and undauntedness, and fell down at his feet to request his pardon, professing himself a Christian, and resolving that James should not receive the crown of martyrdom alone. Hence they were both beheaded at the same time. Thus did the first apostolic martyr cheerfully and resolutely receive that cup, which he had told our Savior he was ready to drink. Timon and Parmenas suffered martyrdom about the same time; the one at Philippi, and the other in Macedonia. These events took place A.D. 44.

In European countries, Muslim immigrants are welcomed to stay and take up citizenship, but Christian refugees are rejected and deported back to Iraq. For example, see Violent clashes outside U.S. Embassy after hundreds of UK Muslims stage mock funeral for Osama Bin Laden.

Under agreements signed with Iraq’s government, Sweden, Britain, Norway and Denmark have sent back hundreds of Iraqi Christians who fled during the most violent years of the war. Alarmed at the deportations, U.N. refugee officials warned that many of the returned Iraqis could face grave dangers back home. Most of the Christians who are deported are fleeing again to neighboring countries like Syria and Jordan after they land in Baghdad.

Source:

Time

Time

At least 12 people have died and 232 were injured when Salafist Muslims gathered outside the Coptic Saint Mena Church to attack Coptic Christians in Cairo’s Imbaba district. More than 190 people detained after fatal clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo. It started after several hundred Salafist Muslims gathered outside the Coptic Saint Mena Church late Saturday (May 7, 2011) following rumours of an interfaith romance. The church was set on fire by the Muslim thugs. The Muslim thugs fired and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, houses and businesses. For months Muslim extremists in Egypt have been protesting about the case of Camelia Shehata, the wife of a Coptic priest, who disappeared last year. They alleged that she converted to Islam and was being held against her will. But she has now appeared on a TV channel saying she is still a willing Christian. Last night’s attack by the Salafists on the Saint Mena church in Imbaba was about a different woman, who they also allege is being forcibly prevented from converting to Islam.

There are an estimated 2,000 churches in Egypt. As a religious minority, the Copts are subject to discrimination in Egypt, and the target of attacks by militant Islamic extremist groups. Coptic Christians account for about 10% of Egypt’s population, and have long complained of state discrimination against them, but their complaints were ignored by their fellow Christians in the West. Acccording to The Christian Science Monitor,

The US has provided Egypt with $1.3 billion a year in military aid since 1979, and an average of $815 million a year in economic assistance. All told, Egypt has received over $50 billion in US largesse since 1975.

The Coptic Christian community has been constantly targeted by hate crimes and physical assaults by the Muslim extremists. The most significant was the 2000–2001 El Kosheh attacks, in which the Muslims attacked the Christians following a dispute between a Muslim and a Christian. Twenty Christians were slaughtered by the Muslims after violence broke out in the town of el-Kosheh, 440 kilometres (275 miles) south of Cairo.

The Copts are the real native Egyptians of Egypt while the Muslims are either the descendants of the Arab invaders or native Egyptians who were forced to convert to Islam when the Arabs invaded Egypt in 7th century A.D.

The Arab-Muslim Invasion of Egypt

In 641 AD, Egypt was invaded by the Arab invaders who faced off with the Byzantine army, but found little to no resistance from the native Egyptian population. Local resistance by the Egyptians however began to materialize shortly thereafter and would last until at least the 9th century.

The ruthless Arab rulers imposed a special tax, known as Jizya, on the Christians who acquired the status of dhimmis, and all native Egyptians were prohibited from joining the army. Egyptian converts to Islam in turn were relegated to the status of mawali. Heavy taxation was one of the reasons behind Egyptian organized resistance against the new occupying power, as well as the decline of the number of Christians in Egypt. Conditions, however, worsened shortly after that, and in the 8th and 9th centuries, during the period of the great national resistance against the Arabs, Muslim rulers banned the use of human forms in art (taking advantage of an iconoclastic conflict in Byzantium) and consequently destroyed many Coptic paintings and frescoes in churches.

The Fatimid period of Islamic rule in Egypt was more tolerant with the exception of the violent persecutions of the evil Caliph Al-Hakim. Persecution of Egyptian Christians, however, reached a peak in the early Mamluk period following the Crusader wars. Many forced conversions of Christians took place. Monasteries were occasionally raided and destroyed by marauding barbaric Bedouin.

Camelia Shehata Confirms Her Christian Faith

From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated. (Ignatius to the Romans, 5)

St. Ignatius of Antioch is one of the Apostolic Fathers (the earliest authoritative group of the Church Fathers). St. Ignatius, along with his friend Polycarp were disciples of the Apostle John. Besides his Greek name, Ἰγνάτιος, Ignatius, he also called himself Θεοφόρος, Theophorus (“God Bearer”), and tradition says he was one of the children Jesus took in His arms and blessed.

St. Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch after St. Peter and St. Evodius (who died around AD 67). Eusebius records that St. Ignatius succeeded St. Evodius. Making his apostolic succession even more immediate, Theodoret (Dial. Immutab., I, iv, 33a) reported that Peter himself appointed Ignatius to the see of Antioch.

108 A.D.

Along the route to Rome, St. Ignatius wrote six letters to the churches in the region and one to a fellow bishop. He was sentenced to die in the Colosseum, to be eaten by lions. In his Chronicle, Eusebius gives the date of his death as AA 2124 (2124 years after Adam), which would amount to the 11th year of Trajan, i.e. 108 AD