Pope Shenouda said that it is true that Arab countries, sometimes, describe themselves as Muslim, forgetting other denominations within them and that the Egyptian land and army are referred to as "Muslim land" and Muslim Army." "True, there are Islamist countries, but even those countries are not ruled by Islamic fundamentalism."

"The intifada is the only means of resistance available to Palestinians. If the Arab states had better levels of cooperation, stones might have become something else..."