Zakaria Botros ( ar , زكريا بطرس; born 24 October 1934, in
Kafr El Dawwar
Kafr El Dawwar ( ar, كفر الدوار, lit=town of the farm ) is a major industrial city and municipality on the Nile Delta in the Beheira Governorate of northern Egypt. Located approximately 30 km from Alexandria, the municipality h ...
) is a former Orthodox
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
priest. He worked as a priest in Australia in 1992. He is best known for his critiques of the
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
and other books of Islam. ''
World Magazine
''World'' (often stylized in all-caps as ''WORLD'') is a biweekly Christian news magazine, published in the United States by God's World Publications, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. ''World''s declared p ...
'' gave Father Botros the Daniel of the Year award in 2008. He has been named "Islam's public enemy No. 1" by Arabic newspaper ''al Insan al Jadeed''.
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
has put a C$60 million bounty on his head.
Television
Botros became widely known in 2003 after he appeared on talk shows on the Hayah Evangelical Channel. He went on to have his own show on the channel. His criticism of Islam led to many debates about him on talk shows. He frequently appears on
Al Hayat TV
Alhayat TV, also known as Life TV ( ar, قناة الحياة), is an evangelical Christian Arabic-language television channel that airs in countries in North Africa, West Asia, the Middle East, America, Canada, Australia and some of Europe. .
Programme cancelled
In July 2010, the
Joyce Meyer
Pauline Joyce Meyer (née Hutchison; June 4, 1943) is an American Charismatic Christian author, speaker and president of Joyce Meyer Ministries. Joyce and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her min ...
Evangelical Ministry – which was a partner for Hayah Channel – informed
BBC Arabic
BBC Arabic ( ar, بي بي سي عربي) may refer to the Literary Arabic language radio station run by the BBC World Service, as well as the BBC's satellite TV channel, and the website that serves as an Literary Arabic language news portal an ...
that it would discontinue broadcasting Zakaria Botros's show. A quote from the letter reads:
The ministry did not comment on the cancellation.''
[موقع «BBC Arabic»: قناة "الحياة" وبرامج زكريا بطرص المثيرة للجدل؟](_blank)
- تاريخ الوصول: 22 مايو 2010 م.
Al Fady Channel
Zakaria opened his own channel in April 2011, which he called "Alfady". It is broadcast in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
since November 2011.
Vienna presentation
Botros was supposed to give a presentation in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
on 6 May 2012. The presentation would have been his first major appearance in Europe, but the event was cancelled due to "numerous threats of violence."
Wiener Akademikerbund published an apology in the press.
Response from Muslims
Debates
His most well known respondents included Abo Islam Ahmad Abdullah, Dr. Ibrahim Awad, and Dr. Abdullah Badr. Other public figures suggested that he be ignored.
Abo Islam Ahmad Abdullah said he invited the Coptic priest to a debate with a moderator on a TV show inside Egypt, but the offer was refused due to safety reasons, despite Muslim scholars promising to stay with him during the whole trip to guard him.
Calls for stripping his citizenship
In 2009,
asked the Egyptian government to strip Zakaria Botros's citizenship due to "the instability and disturbing the public security which he caused to Egypt".
Calls to arrest him
An Egyptian lawyer, Mahmoud Riad, sued the Egyptian president, the Foreign Minister, the Interior Minister, and the Information Minister in a lawsuit to force the Egyptian government to request that
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
arrest and extradite Zakaria Botros back to Egypt so that he might be held accountable for his denunciation of Islam. He stated that denouncing Islam is high treason, and that Egypt should withdraw the ambassador to the country where Botros broadcasts. Earlier four lawyers had asked for the same thing.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Botros, Zakaria
1934 births
Living people
Egyptian people of Coptic descent
Coptic Christians from Egypt
Christian critics of Islam