Egypt's religious endowments minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa said that having pre-prepared Friday sermons is of "legitimate national interest," though he stressed that the "era of silencing people is over."

More than 220 thinkers, politicians, secularists and non-secularists, and Muslims from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iraq, Tunisia, Bahrain, Libya, Europe, the United States, and Australia, convened to study and discuss the status of the minorities in the Middle East and Islamic countries.

In order to end the long and enduring persecution of the Copts in Egypt , we call on the Egyptian government to enact ‘Special Legislation’ through the Egyptian legislature to correct all inequities resulting from historical neglect and discrimination.