Sisi affirms equal religious rights to all Egyptians

CAIRO – 5 November 2018: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Sunday November 4 that the Egyptian state is keen on building churches for Copts in all urban communities, especially new ones.

Foreign media platforms have highlighted President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's remarks concerning the state's keenness for granting equal religious rights to all Egyptian citizens.

During the second day of the World Youth Forum's second edition on Sunday, Sisi affirmed that Egypt does not discriminate between its people on the basis of religion or race, adding that it deals with all citizens based on the "principle of citizenship."


“There is no discrimination in Egypt based on religion. We say only the person is Egyptian, not Muslim or Christian, and when an Egyptian falls, it hurts all Egyptians,” Sisi said.

If we had other religions here in Egypt, we would have built them places of worship, and if we had Jews in the country, we would build them worship places, because "it is the citizen’s right."

Gunmen opened fire on Friday, November 2 on two buses near the Monastery of St. Samuel in Minya, 260 km (160 miles) up the River Nile from Cairo, killing seven people and wounding 18 others, including children.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack; the Islamic State, along with other affiliated groups, previously claimed responsibility for several attacks on Egypt's Christian minority, including one that killed 28 people in May 2017, within the vicinity of the latest attack.

President Sisi described perpetrators as “treacherous hands that seek to undermine the cohesive fabric of the homeland.”

Sisi also affirmed the nation's “determination to continued efforts to combat terrorism and prosecute the perpetrators.”