|
CAIRO, Jan. 6-- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi attended on Saturday evening the Coptic Christmas Eve celebration held at a new, partly-opened cathedral in the country's new administrative capital city eastern Cairo. "This partial opening of the cathedral is a very important message of peace and love not only to Egyptians but to the whole world," said the Egyptian president in his remarks at the cathedral aired on the state TV. The new unfinished cathedral, named the Nativity of Christ, is said to be the largest in the Middle East region. "We love you. We are one united people and no one can ever divide us," Sisi told the cheering Copts ahead of the Christmas Mass that is rarely held outside the main St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo. Copts constitute to about 10 percent of Egypt's 100-million population and most of Egypt's Copts belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, which celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7. Sisi's remarks came amid a wave of anti-Coptic church terrorist attacks that killed over a hundred since late 2016, with most of them claimed by a Sinai-based terrorist group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) group. In late 2017, a terrorist shootout outside a church southern Cairo killed at least 10 people, including a policeman and one of the two perpetrators. In late May 2017, the IS claimed responsibility for shooting dead at least 30 Copts heading to visit a monastery on the desert highway in Upper Egypt's Minya Province. | 
