President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Tuesday visited the main Coptic Christian cathedral during its Christmas Eve Mass, and the Egyptian state news media declared him the first Egyptian president to attend such a service.
“Let no one say, ‘What kind of Egyptian are you?’ ” Mr. Sisi told the thousands of worshipers, declaring that Egypt would rise above centuries of tensions between Muslims and Christians. “It is not right to call each other anything but ‘the Egyptians.’ We must only be Egyptians!”
The cathedral erupted in applause, and Copts, who make up about 10 percent of the roughly 85 million Egyptians, heralded Mr. Sisi’s appearance there as a milestone. It was also the latest demonstration of the increasingly tight alliance between Sisi and the Coptic Pope Tawadros II
The Coptic Church celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7 of the Western calendar, following an older system that the Roman Catholic Church moved away from with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582.
Many Copts regard Sisi as a national savior and Pope Tawadros II has been a vocal supporter of Sisi’s drive for security and stability.