Muhammad talks about one of the chants heard at November's ‘Umrāniyyah riots: “Army of Christ, let us move forward!”

He says he first heard the slogan on a website supporting converts to Christianity, at the time thinking it was a nice slogan. However, Muhammad says that Christians in the riot case not only used the slogan for emotional support, but also to encourage Christians to arm themselves and confront security forces.

Muhammad says that inflammatory text messages and emails have been circulating in Upper Egypt, calling upon young Copts to build an “Army of Christ” to face anyone in the way of building churches. He also says that the large number of Upper Egyptian Copts at the incident is not such a strange coincident, like most people allege. He says that the whole area of Faysal and Haram is mainly occupied by Upper Egyptians, many of whom were looking to make a living from building the church in question.

During the incident, Pope Shenouda III was misquoted, having allegedly said that violence should be met by violence. In fact, he said that it should not be met by violence. However, Muhammad says that violence is not new to the church and gives an example of Father Mattias Nasr Manqarius of the Virgin Mary and Pope Kyrillos Church, who frequently holds festivals where he delivers speeches about discrimination against Copts, doing so with two young Copts at his side with crosses and guns emblazoned on their t-shirts.

He then alleges that the use of Molotov cocktails in the ‘Umrāniyyah riots is an indication that the activity was organized.