We are witnessing martyrs for the faith in our own time. In the latest string of attacks on Christians in the Middle East by Muslim extremists, A car bomb exploded last night [New Year's Eve] outside a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, just before Mass ended. The death toll from the bloody attack is, for now, 21 dead and 43 wounded.  [snip] ...many of the faithful gathered outside the charred remains of the car singing "We offer our lives and our blood through the Cross." On October 31, Al Qaeda attacked and killed Assyrian Catholics in a church in Iraq during Mass. They made a promise to rid Iraq of Christians; they're succeeding. The Islamic effort to cleanse the Middle East by Christians has increased," writes a Coptic website. In a statement published by the Egyptian press, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has appealed to Egyptians, "Copts and Muslims, to maintain their unity in the face of the terrorist forces that undermine the stability of...(Read Full Post)