Dr. Safwat al-Bayādī, the head of the Coptic Evangelical Church in Egypt, said he would support a candidate who will put the nation’s interest as his top priority and separate between his religious affiliations and the homeland’s public good.

I would not refuse a pious president who is fair to all regardless of the difference in religions but I would, however, refuse a candidate who mixes politics with religion just for the sake of achieving personal or partisan interests,” said Bayādī during an interview with al-Akhbār newspaper.

Dr. Bayādī thanked Grand Shaykh of the Azhar Dr. Ahmad al-Tayīb for adding a phrase in his proposed paper to Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution that allows non-Muslims to have recourse to their religious laws on matters of personal status, adding this phrase will definitely spare Copts any clashing with the judiciary like the case during the past years. [Husnī Mīlād, al-Akhbār, May 10, p. 13] Read original text in Arabic