Christianity Today reported on 10 January 2018 that
a new cathedral was inaugurated during the Orthodox Christmas Eve service on 6 January attended by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Tawadros II. The church, which is said to be the biggest in the Middle East, is located 28 miles outside of Cairo in the Egyptian government"s new administrative complex. The new cathedral has been named "The Nativity of Christ" and has the capacity to accommodate 8,200 worshipers. In his speech during the inauguration, President al-Sisi said: "Evil, destruction and killing will never defeat goodness, peace and love - We are one, and you are our families. No one can ever divide us." According to an article by USA Today on 5 January 2018, state-owned media outlets reported that Egyptian government funds amounting to 12 million USD were
allocated for the construction.
Yonas Dembele, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "This gesture by the Egyptian government shows once again that President al-Sisi"s administration wants to be perceived as a government championing the rights of Egyptian Christians. This is the fourth time that President al-Sisi has attended a Christmas service with Coptic Orthodox Christians. Such acts are symbolically important and an encouragement for Egyptian Christians who feel besieged both by violent attacks from the Islamic State group and by the more general Islamic hostility experienced in everyday Egyptian society. Despite such welcome gestures on the part of the government, Egyptian Christians continue to face discrimination and violent attacks such as the
killing of at least six Coptic Christians on the same day as the cathedral"s inauguration on 6 January. In a drive-by shooting, worshippers were shot as they left a church in Naj Hammadi in southern Egypt, according to a report by BBC News on 7 January 2018."
