While Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is committed to defeating the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State, which would persecute severely or even exterminate Egyptian Christians if given the chance, this ancient religious minority has hardly flourished under his rule. Samuel Tadros explains:

For the past six years, since the Muslim Brotherhood’s government was overthrown by General Sisi, Western delegations, often composed of evangelical leaders, have returned from the country telling a similar story: . . . not only is the choice in Egypt a binary one between the Islamists and Sisi but, more profoundly, Sisi is a champion of religious freedom.

But these claims, writes Tadros, are dubious, and often distort the truth. Take for instance the statement recently made in an American newspaper that a law passed by the Egyptian parliament in 2016 has allowed for the building of hundreds of new churches:

In fact, the new law makes it nearly impossible for new churches to be built in existing cities by tying their approval and space to an unspecified necessary minimum number of Christians in an unspecified area. In practice, this has meant that, in the three years since, not a single church has been approved in existing cities. Since taking power, President Sisi has approved the building of 35 new churches in new cities being built in the desert, but none in any inhabited by actual Copts. This record is worse than that of former President Hosni Mubarak.

But the plight of Copts in Egypt is not limited to church building or the lack of equality. In the past several decades, over 1,000 mob attacks have taken place on Copts in Egypt’s villages and towns. Under Sisi, the number of those attacks has increased. In none of these incidents, whether under President Anwar Sadat, Mubarak, the [period of] military rule, Muhammad Morsi, or Sisi has a single person ever faced trial. The government is always happy to try Islamists, its sworn enemies, but it has shown no interest in punishing regular Egyptians for pogroms that have terrorized Copts and have included dozens of murders.

Instead, the Sisi government continues the practice of holding reconciliation sessions. These have created a culture of impunity and encouragement that rewards the attackers by meeting their demands. The message is clear: you can attack Copts, get away with it, and be rewarded.

Stephen Daisley writes about the slaying of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim:

Yaron and Sarah were murdered in a climate of lies and vilification and hatred. . . . The more institutions participate in this collective madness, the more madness there will be. The more elected officials and NGOs misrepresent the predictable consequences of asymmetric warfare in densely populated territories, where much of the infrastructure of everyday life has a dual civilian/terrorist purpose, the more the citizenries of North America and Europe will come to regard Israelis and Jews as a people who lust unquenchably after blood.

The most intolerant anti-Zionism is becoming a mainstream view, indulged by liberal societies, more concerned with not conflating irrational hatred of Israel with irrational hatred of Jews—as though the distinction between the two is all that well defined anymore.

For years now, and especially after the October 7 massacre, the call has gone up from the pro-Palestinian movement to put Palestine at the heart of Western politics. To pursue the struggle against Zionism in every country, on every platform, and in every setting. To wage worldwide resistance to Israel, not only in Wadi al-Far’a but in Washington, DC. “Globalize the intifada,” they chanted. This is what it looks like.