MONTREAL (AFP) – Copts in Canada have hired private security contractors to protect churchgoers during this week's Christmas period after an attack in Egypt and Islamist threats, the national association said Monday.
Canada has an estimated 255,000 Copts, mainly in Toronto where there are 14 Coptic churches, but also in Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver, where police patrols are also likely to be stepped up for midnight masses on Thursday.
"The churches are going to conduct ceremonies with no problem, it's going to be the same as usual. However, the security will be tightened up around the buildings," Canadian Coptic Association spokesman Sherif Mansour told AFP.
"The people who are going to enter (the churches) will be only people known by the community, and we have hired a private security company to be within the churches perimeters," Mansour said.
The security announcements came in the wake of a deadly attack that killed 21 worshippers at a New Year's mass in Alexandria, the city in Egypt where the branch of Christianity originated.
Canada's Coptic community was already on high alert after the names and addresses of 100 Copts, along with photographs, were published on an Islamist website in December.
"Everybody is now worried of going to church but we won't stop," Mishriky Guindi, whose name appeared on the website, told AFP.
Police in several European countries have also boosted security at the group's churches following threats from Islamists.
Mansour said a new wave of Copts was immigrating to places like Australia and Canada because of the violence they are subjected to in the Middle East.
"We are seeing a new trend of young professionals that are leaving with their families," he said.
Copts, who celebrate Christmas on January 7, make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 80-million population and often complain of discrimination.
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