The Archbishop of Canterbury has made a flying visit to Egypt to offer his condolences to President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and the country’s Christian leaders

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby has made a flying visit to Egypt to offer his condolences to President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and the country’s Christian leaders on the murders of 21 Egyptian Copts by the terrorists aligned with the Islamic State in Libya earlier this year. On 18 April 2015 Archbishop Welby, accompanied by Archbishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, the primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, met with President Al-Sisi at the presidential palace in Heliopolis. According to presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef in a statement released through the Egyptian State News Agency, Archbishop Welby offered his condolences to the president for the February murders and praised the Egyptian leader for issuing a call for Islamic leaders to refute IS’s claims of a religious sanction for their attacks on Christians. The state news agency reported President Al-Sisi thanked Archbishop Welby for his condolences, but also expressed that in Egypt Christians are not a minority and have the equal rights of all Egyptian citizens. The president “praised the Egyptian church’s role and stressed the importance of many cultures in enriching human life.” After meeting with the president, Archbishop Williams paid a courtesy call upon the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayb and the Coptic Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria.