Standing Boldly in Faith
This night would not be like other nights. Something big was happening. The old men who usually gathered at the corner cafés each night to smoke shisha and play board games were gone. In their place, hundreds of Egyptian Christians began walking peacefully through the streets of the Coptic neighborhood of Mokattam. Together they walked to mark the end of forty days of mourning following sectarian clashes that had killed twenty-seven people, most of them Jesus followers. Not knowing what the cost might be, they proudly identified themselves with Jesus in a Muslim world. By standing together, they were making a powerful statement to anyone in the world who was paying attention.
Since the January-February revolution that led to more than eight hundred people being killed and more than six thousand injured, Egypt had been awash in social, political, and cultural turmoil. Everywhere, it seemed, people were standing up for what they believed—or standing up to silence the beliefs of others. The Christian community in Egypt has come under repeated attack since the 2011 revolution—by both the Egyptian military and Muslim extremists. This level of persecution has shocked the Christian community in Egypt. Some of the attacks even took place in Mokattam.
A Life-Changing Attack
In one of those attacks on March 8, 2011, two cousins were severely injured. Twenty-one-year-old Akhon considered himself to be a Christian but knew that his spiritual life was more going through the motions than a serious commitment. One night he found himself caught in a situation that quickly turned from peace to turmoil. Attackers started throwing rocks, bricks, and broken glass from a six-story apartment building. Clashes broke out. Suddenly, a man fired three shots into Akhon’s face and one into his stomach. His cousin Hassani was also injured that night when an attacker cut his face with a machete.
Both men survived, which some consider a miracle. As they healed in a hospital, made possible by Christians who paid their medical expenses and supported them in prayer, they recognized a greater miracle. The brutal attack they suffered and the horrible wounds they still endured led them to fully commit their lives to Jesus. Akhon’s shattered jaw had to be stabilized and anchored with screws. His stomach is scarred from the bullet and the incisions to retrieve it. But the destruction of his body led to a renewal of his spirit. “The attack helped me to get closer to God,” he said. “I was away from the Lord. I was doing bad things, living a life of sin. While I was healing, I was always asking the Lord to change me, to make more perfection in my heart.”
To be continued…
Date: 6th December 2025
Martyr: Akhon and Hassani
Location: Egypt
Source: The Voice of the Martyrs “I am n”
Author: Not specified
Suffering Saturday 172
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