The Los Angeles Times newspaper in a March 5 article said Egyptian Christians feel safer under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi although bias continues against them.
The article, written by Kristen Chick, reported that Christians believe that their condition is improving significantly and many of them see Sisi as their protector who saved them from Muslim Brotherhood rule.
Christians have been subjected to increasing attacks after the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, and violence had peaked after the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the article reported. Many Christians took part in the uprising against Morsi, causing bigoted Islamists to attack churches and Christian homes in retaliation.
"The number of attacks and kidnappings for ransom, common in the years after 2011, have dropped. In a historic first that heartened many Christians, Sisi attended a Christmas Eve service in the main Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo in January 2015, and again this year," the article reported, adding that Sisi ordered the military to rebuild burned churches.
"God gave us Sisi," the newspaper quoted Medhat Atta Morkos, a 54-year-old doctor from Minya, as saying. Atta was kidnapped for ransom in 2012 and said he lived in fear until his life has now returned to normal.
"It's a miracle that Sisi came and saved us from the corruption that happened," the paper quoted Atta. "He saved the country from being destroyed," he added.
Despite improved conditions for Christians under Sisi, Christians still suffer from discrimination in many aspects like the need to obtain the authorities' permission before constructing a church or restoring it.
