ICC Note: President Sisi visited the Christmas celebration at the Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo again this year. His visit carries much symbolic weight in a country that remains deeply divided on religious lines. The short speech promised to see churches restored that were destroyed in 2013, something that has been promised previously and only partially fulfilled.

01/07/2016 Egypt (Al Ahram) Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi attended the Coptic Christmas mass on Wednesday for the second straight year at Saint Mark’s Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbasiya district, where he gave a small speech to mark the religious event.

“We do not want anything to harm us [Egyptians] whether our economic or political circumstances,” Sisi said, adding that diversity in religions, traditions and languages is part of “God’s norms of life.”

The Egyptian President also apologised to Christians for the churches that were torched during clashes between supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and security forces following the dispersal of two pro-Morsi camps in August 2013.

“The Churches would be fully restored this year,” he said.

Video footage broadcast by Egyptian state TV showed crowds cheering as Sisi entered the Cathedral with churchmen, saluting Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox church.

Sisi left shortly after finishing his brief speech.

…