President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi promised to repair every one of the country’s churches that have been burned, it was reported in January.
At a special Christmas service at St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo on 6 January, President al-Sisi made a landmark apology to Egypt’s Christian community for the delays in restoring torched churches. This was President al-Sisi’s second visit to a church at Christmas. He is the first Egyptian president ever to make such a visit.
‘We have taken too long to fix and renovate churches that were burned’, said the President. ‘This year everything will be fixed. Please accept our apologies for what happened. God willing, by next year there won't be a single church or house that is not restored … Merry Christmas.’
Using the army
President al-Sisi has been as good as his word and the Egyptian army is currently working to rebuild the churches.
Scores of churches, Christian institutions, homes and businesses were torched on 14 August 2013, just over a month after former President Mohammed Morsi was ousted from his position, when protests by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters were broken up.
