A threat posted online against Coptic Orthodox churches in Toronto and members of the local Coptic community "doesn't worry us much," said the senior priest of the Scarborough parish."We are accepting whatever happens to us, because our faith is in God," said Fr. Marcos Marcos on Tuesday, Jan. 4.
But as Copts prepared to gather Thursday, Jan. 6, to celebrate their Christmas Eve, local Scarborough-Agincourt MP Jim Karygiannis was urging police forces wherever Coptic churches exist in Canada to "speak to the priests personally to alleviate their fears and if necessary to provide adequate protection."
A bomb attack in Egypt on New Year's Eve killed more than 20 Copts, worsening relations between that country's Christians and its Muslim majority.
Reports say an Al-Qaeda-linked website last month posted lists of Coptic churches in Canada and identified 100 Arab-Christian Canadians as Copts.
"On that website they show how to bomb people, how to make homemade bombs," said Karygiannis, who said the mood among Canada's Copts is tense.
This tears it, al-Qaeda. You so much as harm a hair on the head of our precious Sheila and I promise you I'll . . . I'll . . .
I'll have a beer and a ham sandwich, that's what I'll do, 'cause I know how much you hate our freedoms.