Dear Arab-West Report Newsletter readers,

Please find hereby our overview of newsletters for the first quarter of 2021. We received a response from an Evangelical Christian to the last newsletter. I wrote that fasting is more prevalent in Orthodox and Catholic circles but she corrected me and wrote this is also common in Evangelical circles. My main aim was of course to show similarities between Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Wishing all readers who are fasting a blessed period of fasting,

April 18, 2021

Cornelis Hulsman,

Editor-in-chief Arab-West Report

English Newsletter

1) Egyptian responses to the change of presidents in the US
January 21, 2021 ​

The Trump era has finished. President Joe Biden has been inaugurated as the 46th president of the USA. Egyptians have been following the American elections this year with unprecedented interest. Check out the articles on Arab-West Report about the Middle Eastern responses to the transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
(Click here for full text)

2) Eschatology in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

January 25, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Slomp, a longtime friend of Arab-West Report, has written an impressive book review for Arab-West Report about an equally impressive book of Prof. Dr. Anton Wessels, "The Grand Finale; The Apocalypse in the Tanakh, the Gospel, and the Qur’an." The book and the review are highly recommended readings for anyone with an interest in eschatology in seeing the connections between Jews, Christians and Muslims.
(Click here for full text)

3) Reconciliation meetings in Egypt
February 15, 2021

Reconciliation meetings in Egypt have received a lot of negative publicity by Coptic activists in the West. Such generalizing statements are utterly unhelpful. Thus, CAWU intern Dina Abdulrahman reported about the excellent work in reconciliation that has been carried out for years by Ḥussayn Abū Ghadīr in Assiut and others.
(Click here for full text)

4) Long overdue investments in Upper Egypt helps to fight extremism
March 4, 2021

The Egyptian Ministry of Planning announced an investment of 105 billion Egyptian pounds in Upper Egypt in the coming three years. Upper Egypt is the region where the greatest poverty is in Egypt. It is also that part of Egypt where the percentage of Christians is substantially higher than the Delta. Many Christians have emigrated in large numbers to Cairo, not because they were persecuted, but mostly to seek better economic opportunities.
(Click here for full text)

5) A dent in the trust of medical care in Egypt
March 17, 2021

On March 9, Sara, one of our refugee students passed away. She was only 18 years old. Her disease wasn't deadly though. Was this because medical doctors and hospitals looked at a refugee and thus someone not able to pay a lot? Or was it that they genuinely did not know? AWR friend, Dr. Mahmoud Khayyal passed away as well, after he got infected with Covid-19 in the hospital.
(Click here for full text)

6) Pope Francis: 'We cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion'
March 18, 2021

Arab-West Report had to delay its commentary on the historical papal visit, due to the tragic death of one of our refugee students. Never before a pope visited Iraq and never before a pope has met with a Shi’ite leader on such a high level. This was truly historic.
(Click here for full text)

7) Pyramid scheme in Egypt threw many thousands of families in turmoil
March 29, 2021
Villagers in and around the village of Qufada, around 200 km south of Cairo, are devastated. Muslims and Christians lost billions of Egyptian pounds because a local trader started a pyramid scheme through which thousands of people became involved and lost their savings and much of their possessions.
(Click here for full text)

8) Monk Basilius al-Maqari: God is love and He loves all humanity
April 1, 2021

On January 1, 2021, Fr. Bāsīliyyūs al-Maqārī passed away, 87 years old. Monk Bāsīliyyūs, as he preferred to be called, was a major authority in the Coptic Orthodox Church. He had a major influence on Arab-West Report. Check all the articles he wrote for the AWR database.
(Click here for full text)

9) Fasting in Islam, Christianity and Judaism

April 13, 2021
Fasting is found in all three Abrahamic religions. The oldest of the three is Judaism. Judaism knows personal fasting as penance for sin. In Christianity fasting is in particular important in Orthodoxy and Catholicism. Also in Islam Muslims are currently celebrating the holy month of Ramadan. We wish all readers of Arab-West Report who are fasting a blessed period of fasting.
(Click here for full text)

If you would like to change your subscription to our quarterly newsletter only, you can do this by writing us at [email protected].