Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak condemned Saturday threats by the Al-Qaeda franchise in Iraq against Coptic Christians in Egypt and promised to protect them, according to official MENA news agency
An Al-Qaeda group, claiming responsibility for a bloody hostage taking in a Baghdad church on Sunday, threatened to target the region's Christians if the Coptic church did not release two women rumoured to have converted to Islam.
Mubarak told Pope Shenouda III in a phone call that he rejected "pushing Egypt's name into the terrorist act that targeted a church in Baghdad," MENA reported.
"The president affirmed his extensive solicitude for the protection of the nation's sons, Muslims and Copts, from the forces of terrorism and extremism," it added. An official said security has been tightened around Coptic churches.
In an Internet audio tape, the Islamic State of Iraq referred to two priests' wives who left their homes in separate incidents and who were rumoured to have converted to Islam before police escorted them back.
The Coptic church denied they had converted to Islam.
Copts, who make up between six and 10 percent of Egypt's 80-million population, have been the targets of sectarian attacks in the past.
