The head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Tawadros II praised on Thursday President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s statements about the recent sectarian strife incidents that took place throughout the past days. Al-Sisi’s statement came during a military graduation ceremony, which the Pope had attended.
In Thursday’s speech, Al-Sisi warned against sectarian tensions, rejected the differentiation between Egyptians based on religious grounds, and asserted that any violations would be faced with accountability by the rule of law.
The Pope said that the president’s words confirmed his concern about the Egyptian people and their affairs.
The president’s statements come in the wake of an increasing number of reported attacks on Copts in different parts of Egypt, in particular in the governorate of Minya.
On 17 July, the families of two priests from Minya were reportedly assaulted with knives by an angry mob, leaving one dead and three injured.
A more recent incident took place on Tuesday in the village of Edmo, also in Minya, where five people were injured from both Muslim and Christian parties, followed by the detention of individuals from both sides.
In May, an elderly Coptic woman was stripped of her clothes and dragged on the streets by an angry mob. To date, there has been no one held accountable for the incident, despite it stirring wide public denunciation. On the contrary, all defendants arrested in the case were released by prosecution authorities.
