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in the novel Nadia’s doctor cousin is “blown to bits, literally to bits, the largest of which … were a head and two-thirds of an arm”. The man who sells Nadia and Saeed magic mushrooms is beheaded, then “strung up by one ankle from an electricity pylon where [his body] swayed legs akimbo until the shoelaces his executioners used instead of rope rotted and gave way”. Saeed’s own mother dies while looking in her car for a lost earring, “a stray heavy-calibre round passing through the windscreen … and taking with it a quarter of her head”. These examples of individual terrorism could be easily compared to many cases I have personal experienced with involving my Coptic Otthodox community. The EgyptAir Airbus A320 flying overnight from Paris to Cairo crashed into the eastern Mediterranean Sea on 19 May 2016. All 66 passengers and crew on board Flight MS804 died. My friend, Mariem Tanious’ father passed away during this flight, and they are Coptic Orthodox as well. Nevertheless, my direct cousin who is also my religion and is a famous drummer in Egypt, was held to gunpoint by a terrorist, asking him for all his money. Luckily, the wallet was given and the terrorist had fled.