Zakaria Botros

Zakaria Botros (Arabic: زكريا بطرس‎‎, born on 24 October 1934) is an Egyptian Coptic priest. He worked as a priest in Australia in 1992. He has a bachelor's degree in History and a doctorate in Islamic Studies, which he has been deeply involved with for 50 years. He is best known for his critiques of the Qur'an and other books of Islam. World Magazine 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 has put a C$ 60 million bounty on his head.

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.

On July 2010 the Joyce Meyer Evangelical Ministry – which was a partner for Hayah Channel – informed BBC Arabic that it would discontinue broadcasting Zakaria Botros's show. A quote from the letter reads:

Our ministry's representative in the middle east informed us that the Hayah Channel decided to stop broadcasting Zakaria Botros's talk show, and this is the last month of its broadcast.

The ministry did not comment on the cancellation.

Zakaria opened his own channel on April 2011, which he called "Alfady". It is broadcast in North America and the Middle East since November 2011.

Botros was supposed to give a presentation in Vienna on the 6th of 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.

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.

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Wikipedia