And still it goes on.

The Coptic Church world wide seems to be the special focus of the more vicious Islamicist elements just now. See http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110105/tts-uk-security-copts-ca02f96.html

In a sense there is a horrid logic to this.  They are relatively easy targets and, if you can draw "the West" into a pseudo-crusade (as it could be spun), you have a sort of twisted victory.  The Islamicist fringe can only be defeated ultimately by cutting they off from their money ("It's the economy stupid") and that means hammering their fiscal backers in sunny Saudi Arabia.  It is a war of intelligence and electronics rather than one involving tanks etc.  But still prayer for protection of the vulnerable and the conversion of the twisted and misguided remains an options for those of us who ain't spooks or soldiers.