SAT-7® Offers Condolences and Prayers

SAT-7® Offers Condolences, Prayers for Families of Christians Slain on Eastern Christmas Eve

Ministry urges viewers to be agents of peace in countries where these attacks are becoming too common.

Nicosia, Cyprus, January 7, 2010: Millions of Coptic Orthodox Christians gathered in Egypt on January 6th to celebrate Christ’s birth according to their calendar. Sadly, according to published reports, shortly after an 11:30 p.m. church service concluded in the Nile community of Naga Hammadi City (located near Luxor), an unknown assailant opened fire on a crowd of worshippers, killing five Coptic Christians and a police officer. Seven others were injured.

“This is truly a horrific attack, one specifically targeting Christians on one of the holiest days of the year,” says David Harder, SAT-7’s Communications Manager. “Our prayers go out to the families of the victims. SAT-7 regularly receives prayer requests from Christians in Egypt, and in other Middle Eastern countries, asking for viewers to pray for peace in the communities. We broadcast these requests on our SAT-7 ARABIC channel and urge all our viewers to pray.”

Over the past year, Christians in Egypt have suffered what appears to be an increasing number of attacks. “Christians in Egypt are very concerned about these violent incidents. At SAT-7 we want to help the larger community to understand the beliefs of their Christian neighbors, encouraging them to live together in peace and mutual respect. We urge Christians around the world to join with us in praying that God will touch the suffering and will somehow turn these incidents around, so that what is meant for evil will instead be used for good, eventually brining positive changes to effected communities so that such attacks will become a thing of the past,” adds Mr. Harder.

Egypt isn’t the only place where these attacks have taken place over the Christmas season. On December 24th, Western Christmas Eve, a church in Mosul, Iraq was bombed. According to published reports, two Christians were killed in that attack, and five were injured.

SAT-7 has been broadcasting a record number of Christmas specials throughout the holiday season. These programs have been designed and are being broadcast for both Middle Eastern Christians who celebrate the Western Christmas (on Dec. 25) and those marking the Eastern Christmas (celebrated today, on Jan. 7). 

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Launched in 1996, SAT-7 is a Christian television service created by and for the People of the Middle East and North Africa with U.S. headquarters in Easton, Md. SAT-7 makes Christ's message of hope available to every home in the Middle East and North Africa. SAT-7 consists of four channels: SAT-7 ARABIC, SAT-7 PARS (Farsi), SAT-7 TÜRK (Turkish) and SAT-7 KIDS (Arabic). Each week between 12-15 million people tune into the channels (Intermedia research, 2004 – 2006). Broadcast in three languages—Arabic, Farsi and Turkish—SAT-7 can be viewed via satellite in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, much of Central Asia and worldwide at www.SAT7.org. For more information about SAT-7 go to: www.sat7usa.org.

CONTACT: 
SAT-7 USA 
(410) 770-9804 or (866) 744-7287
usa@sat7.org

Date: 1/7/2010 2:22:39 PM