A group of Coptic activists severely criticized the participation of Bishop Marqus of Shubrā al-Khaymah and Dr. Safwat al-Bayyādī of the Coptic Evangelical Church in the Egyptian delegation traveling to Saudi Arabia to meet Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King ‘Abd Allāh bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz.

The activists, in a statement, refused “the Egyptian church’s involvement in such deals with Islamists to bring Egypt to its knees for a neighboring country,” adding “Egypt’s Copts will not kneel to ask for the forgiveness of a certain party that has been in the wrong side in the first place”. [‘Imād Khalīl, al-Misrī al-Yawm, May 5, p. 4] Read original text in Arabic