Saturday, August 15, 2009

Exorcism in the Coptic Church as a motive for conversion from Islam

Great quote here:

Some of the priests, like Father Samaan of Cairo, have acquired such a reputation for their ability to exorcise demonsand evil spirits that I once witnessed the arrival of a Muslim woman, with her mentally disturbed daughter, who had traveled all the way from Syria to seek his aid.


Ch. 14, Sana Hasan, Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: The Century-long Struggle for Coptic Equality. (Oxford 2003)

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I've heard before from friends who are Coptic Orthodox from Egypt about large churches there being packed full of Muslims seeking to be healed. It seems that the efficacy of Christian prayer is well-attested amongst even the Muslims of Egypt. I pray that this fascination translates to conversions.

akhter said...

wishful thinking, there is a lot of Hindu , Christians and sikhs who come to the Pirs in India and Pakistan to be healed, and visa versa.So what does this tells you?
nearly all who attend are epileptics poor people who can not afford treatment and are lured by these so called healers.The church with all power and money take full advantage of it, so who is a deceiver?

Anonymous said...

Diseases aren't cured by exorcism, nor are possessions cured by science. One must remember that Jesus both cured illnesses and drove out demons; He didn't just do one or the other. So one must not confuse illness for possession, and this is why the Catholic Church doesn't excorise people until all other negative possibilites are exhausted (mental illness, for example).

M. Burns said...

Re: comment by akhter, "....The church with all power and money take full advantage of it, so who is a deceiver?"

Are you implying that the church requires people to pay for the prayers said for their healing? Are you speaking of all Christian churches or just of one in particular? Although I cannot attest to the denominations, I can say, as a practicing Catholic, that the Catholic Church does not ever require or even ask for payment in order to pray for someone to be healed! (And in fact that is all anyone can do, as it is God who heals, albeit through His Church, the Body of Christ.)

You have made a serious allegation against whatever church you are speaking of. Please provide proof of the truth of your statement. How do you know this is true?

Further, I would say to stay well away from anyone who is even 'asking' for payment, even if they don't 'require' it. Such a one is obviously not working for God!

I would also suggest reading "The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena," which can be downloaded for free on the His Mercy Web site at http://www.hismercy.ca/content/HM_ebooks.html (PDF), or on the Catholic Treasury Web site at http://www.catholictreasury.info/books/dialogue/index.php (Web). This will explain why Hindu, Muslim, etc. prayers are ineffective.

Tito Edwards said...

I would have to concur with Mr. M.

Being a Catholic myself, no pastor receives nor (should) asks for payment of any type.

I would like to assume this goes the same for the Orthodox, Oriental, and Coptic Christians as well.

It's a poor misguided Protestants that smeers the name of Christianity.

Anonymous said...

@akhter: This is the Coptic Church we're talking about. If they are really so wealthy and powerful, why are they being persecuted? Egypt is a country where many people are unfortunately swayed by those two things. Obviously that's not happening in the case of the Copts.

Howard said...

Nick: To a large extent I agree, but some demons cause illnesses that cannot be cured by medicine.

Unknown said...

Akhter,

1. In unison with the others here, I ask you to present evidence that the Coptic Church is taking money from these people.
2. I also want to see evidence that Christians in India go to non-Christian healers. The Christians of India tend to be upper-class and educated. I sincerely doubt that they would be going to such healers. I'd like to see the evidence for this accusation.

Nick,

In the end, the demons are behind all illness, whether possession in the common sense of the word or not. Notice that the prayers of Anointing (or Unction, as the Roman Catholics call it) very much resemble an exorcism at times. There's a whole lot more that we could get into on this topic, but I'll leave it there for now.

I would like to assume this goes the same for the Orthodox, Oriental, and Coptic Christians as well.

It does.

Peter said...

I've heard that it is not unusual for Muslims to have priests perform exorcisms and things of that nature since Muslims consider Christianity to be concerned with "lesser spirits". Whereas, in their minds, Islam is only concerned with Allah and his prophet.

Anwar Fazza said...

A muslim here , from Jordan . to be honest and no offence its very unusual and it never happens in the country am from , you will never see a Muslim going to a christian priest , id rather not to mention differences between the two religions to keep it friendly here , and i always laugh at people referring to Allah as a divine being that we muslims believe in it like its a different god from Christians , but if you understood arabic very well , you will know that Allah is formed of two words AL ELAH , which means The God , and having AL = The , it means that there is only One god , since you can use The only to refer to known thing .

A little more thing to say , just so you guys should know , Missionary in our lands these days is about money , you become christian church gives you money , this targets people with low faith , so you will never see a true Muslim converting . not to forget those Missioners are sent from europe (surprise,the religious war since the past history continues) , not local Christians .

Second thing , i look at the rest of the world like how they look at us , that we hate others etc , its just the idea that was given to you by TELEVISION . i have christian friends my self , we have discussions between us , and we never stop at a difference , just like Christians living in islamic empire without anyone hurting them.

And about the differences ill say one word , we both say that Jesus ( Issa , Masseeh -peace be upon him- ) will come back to earth to slay the antichrist , i think that will be the best moment for us to make sure if we are right or wrong without causing problems these days.

Tito Edwards said...

Ahhh, a veiled threat by a Muslim.

Nothing out of the ordinary.