“Don’t cry for me, mother; to a martyr you’ve given birth.

Murderers killed your son, on a night of Christmas mirth.”

 These lines of poetry were crafted for the fortieth day memorial service held for the six young Egyptian Christians randomly gunned down while exiting a Coptic Christmas Eve mass, January 6, 2010, in Najc Hammādī, three hundred miles south of Cairo. They reflect the worries of the Christian community of Egypt that their situation as citizens, even in terms of safety, is steadily declining.