In what is being called the largest terrorist attack in modern Egyptian history, over 300 people were killed at a village mosque. Coptic Christians, who have seen over 100 people killed under an ISIS vow, responded with condemnation and sympathy.

In an excellent review of Shadi Hamid and Will McCants’ Rethinking Political Islam, Olivier Roy says there are generally two ways to think about Islamism: contextualist or essentialist.

The Coptic Orthodox Church’s liturgy featuring daily readings from the Synaxarium about celebrated saints and martyrs encourage the faithful to suffer even unto death.

As word spread that 28 Coptic Christians were killed by terrorists, ambushed on their way to a church retreat in Upper Egypt, it was a little while before the realization hit: I was on a church retreat in the Delta.

In Egypt, Muslims and Christians tend to be friends, neighbors, and quite similar in common culture. At the same time, there is a latent but tangible reservoir of mistrust.

It took me a moment to comprehend. I opened my cell phone to check the news and saw the bold headline: 25 dead and 49 injured in an attack on the Coptic Orthodox cathedral. The spiritual center of Egyptian Christianity had been mercilessly violated.

After EgyptAir flight 804 fell out of the sky, I exhaled deeply with many Egyptians, sighing in familiar resignation, “Oh no, not again.”

In the evolving determination of American interests, is Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a repackaged pharaoh, or a miracle of God’s favor?

Terry Ascott’s solution for the Middle East tramples over one of the region’s most sacred cows: Redraw the map.