Prominent Copts have refused BDP’s initiative to heal sectarian divides, with Kamāl Zākhir, a Christian thinker and coordinator of the Coptic secular movement, claiming “between us there is blood, and we are still people of the dhimmah”. He cited the example of the sectarian strife which plagued the 70s and 80s which saw al-Jamā’ah al-Islāmīyyah target Coptic “money, lives and possessions”. He called on the group to issue a formal admission of responsibility and subsequently an apology. He added that the sectarian issue should be looked at from the national perspective rather than a religious one (Michael Fāris, al-Yawm al-Sābi’, May 17, p. 2). Read original text in Arabic.