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This is a common custom among Coptic Christians because Christianity is the most persecuted religion. In Egypt, Muslims are kidnapping children in order to convert them to Islam. Therefore, Copts, who are a minority, are marking their children with a cross tattoo on their hands. Thousands of Copts have fled Egypt and come to Greece to avoid death and beheading by Muslims. Never forget the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were beheaded by ISIS jihadists in Libya on 15 February in 2015. Remember that Egypt was destroyed after the Islamic invasion when the Arabs literally slaughtered thousands of Egyptians and even changed their language. Coptics had to hide their faith in order to survive. Reminds me of the Greeks who suffered and tried to hide their faith too. During Ottoman period, many Greek Christians, in Constantinople and Crete, pretended to be Muslims in order to avoid torture, rape and death but in reality remained Christians. They dressed like the Turks, accepted circumcision, prayed in the mosque, and observed all the other religious customs of the Turks. Inside their homes, however, they kept icons of Christian saints and performed the services of their true faith, with the help of Crypto-Christian priests who simultaneously wore the attire of dervishes. These crypto-Christians formed distinct communities among the Turks and married among themselves, thus preserving their national homogeneity as well. In 1570–71, Cyprus was subjugated by the Muslim Turks, and many Greeks were forcibly converted to Islam. However, many of them became "crypto-Christians" and even acquired the nickname "linovamvakoi," meaning made of linen and cotton, since they had a dual conscience and dual faith. The envy of the Muslim Turks for the physical and spiritual beauty and superiority of the Greek women, their lustful disposition, and especially that of the Janissaries, who came from our race through the terrible devshirme (child levy) and thus carried a heavy hatred, was manifested barbarically against the Greek Christian ladies and young women, becoming the occasion or cause of bloody martyrdom. The Greek Christian Woman, in order to avoid -as much as she could- the abhorrent dishonor from the barbaric Muslims, would destroy the youthful beauty of her face, or create a family from the age of fourteen, believing that she would not give birth to slaves, that she would raise Greeks and bring up Greeks. In the same way Egyptians tried to find ways to remain Crypto-Christians and avoid tortures and death. But very few survived. I love Egypt. I would really like to see them thrive again. - Homer Pavlos