Al-Azhar's Council of Senior Scholars, headed by Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, has reached a consensus agreement to reject the government's new policy of official, pre-written sermons for Friday prayers, saying the policy is damaging to religious discourse.

Dar Al-Ifta’s Islamophobia Observatory warned on Tuesday against the radical far right-wing in Germany using terrorist attacks in Europe to promote anti-Islam and anti-immigrant campaigns in order to achieve gains in the political sphere.

One of the assailants who slit the throat of an elderly French priest had dreamed of going to Syria and threatened to attack churches -- but seldom visited his local mosque, neighbours said.

Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al Tayeb ordered the leaders of his Islamic institution not to participate in the current controversy over the written sermons, Youm7 reported on Wednesday.

Coptic Bishop Paula of Tanta expressed his readiness to meet with governmental officials to discuss a new draft of churches building law scheduled to be discussed by the parliament during the current parliamentary round, Youm7 reported on Wednesday.

Egyptian MPs told reporters after their meeting with a British parliamentary delegation in Cairo on Tuesday that the delegation agreed that the Muslim Brotherhood group “must be designated a terrorist organisation.”

Egypt’s Muslim Senior Scholars Unanimously rejected Tuesday the written sermons idea during its meeting headed by Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Youm7 reported.

Egypt’s Minister of Endowment Mohamed Mukhtar Gomaa met Monday with a number of Minya’s parliamentarians to discuss the recent incidents witnessed in the province’s village, Youm7 reported.

Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Tawadros II warned on Monday against the repercussions of recent sectarian violence, citing 37 assaults on Copts since 2013.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a checkpoint north of Baghdad on Monday, killing 10 people, officials said.

The Coptic Church and its clerics performed an important role to save Egypt from the sedition, said President of parliament’s Religious Committee Osama Al-Abd on Monday.

Egypt’s Support parliamentary coalition drafts currently a new law to toughen the punishments against the violators of national unity in Egypt, said the coalition’s president Saad Al Gamal on Monday.

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria stated a total of 37 attacks carried out on churches in Egypt over the past three years, per a report, conducted by the Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral and will be referred to the House of Representatives, Youm7 reported.

Calm was restored to a village in Beni Suef yesterday after clashes broke out Friday between Muslims and Christian over alleged illegal church-building.

House of Representatives’ Religious Committee has received a draft law, proposed by over 60 MPs, to organize the building and renovation of churches in Egypt, said the committee’s Chairman Osama Al-Abd on Sunday.

A total of 18 people were arrested over alleged involvement in inciting sectarian violence in Beni Suef, the head of the media office at the Interior Ministry Khaled Fawzy told El-Asema TV Channel.

Chairman of Religious Affairs parliamentary committee Osama Al-Abd demanded Speaker Ali Abdel Aal to involve members of his committee in the fact-finding mission scheduled to be authorized to investigate the recent sectarian incidents witnessed in Minya, Youm7 reported on Sunday.

Islamist parties joined the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in their sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda squares after the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi without asking them about their plans to deal with the crisis, said member of Gammaa Islamiyaa Assem Abdel-Maged.

Beni Suef security directorate facilitated a reconciliation between Muslims and Christians in a village in the Upper Egyptian governorate after Christians were attacked there on Friday, Al-Ahram Arabic reported on Saturday.

A court in Minya ordered on Thursday the release of 16 people pending trial on charges related to sectarian attacks in the governorate earlier this week, a statement by the interior ministry read on Friday.

An Egyptian court will begin examining two appeals in October filed by former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, his lawyer and a judicial official told AFP on Thursday.