ICC Note: With the increased violence we are seeing in Egypt against Coptic Christians, reports are now coming from this community explaining how they feel as they are second class citizens. One public servant who is coptic recently told Brietbart Jerusalem, that while his Muslim friends accept his Christian faith, he is expected to not flaunt this fact. Religious freedoms such as the right to gather and pray in public are a far off dream for the Coptic community, especially in Upper Egypt.

08/02/2016 Egypt (Christian Daily): Egyptian Christians reportedly feel like second-class citizens amid the increasing incidents of violence and harassment all over the country.

In an interview with Breitbart Jerusalem, an Egyptian Christian from Cairo named Majdi said their situation is comparable to former Islamist president Muhammad Morsi’s time when believers faced this much intimidation and harassment. Majdi, who works as a public servant, said his Muslim colleagues can freely pray at work or at a nearby mosque but Christians feel uncomfortable doing so.

“We can walk freely without fear of persecution, but the feeling is that when it comes to the freedom of religious worship we aren’t equal citizens,” said Majdi. “We feel compelled to apologize for being Coptic Christians and feel uncomfortable to ask to pray in a church.”

For Majdi, being able to pray at work or a nearby church will only stay as a dream because they no longer have houses of prayer. Even in his neighborhood where thousands of Copts exists, not a single church can be seen.

Majdi explained that while his Muslim friends accept his Christian faith, he is not supposed to flaunt it in public. For him, the government’s lack of response to the religion-motivated violence against Christians is quite disappointing, especially because they expected the situation to be different under their new leader, President Sisi.

In light of the increasing Christian persecution in Egypt, Coptic Solidarity president George Guirguis has called on the government to implement his positive remarks about tolerance in the country. His group wants to put an end to the hatred and discrimination against believers and implored the country’s leaders to stop taking sides, WND relays.

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