Yesterday, the White House posted a Presidential Message on Global Coptic Day (full text). The Message reads in part:
More than 2,000 years ago, the Holy Family fled to Egypt and sought refuge from persecution, blessing the land that later became home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. When Saint Mark the Evangelist began spreading the Gospel in Egypt decades later, he planted a seed that would grow into the extraordinary Coptic Orthodox Church.
Today, Coptic Christians throughout the United States enrich our national life through their devotion to God, love of family, and steadfast witness to the blessings of faith and freedom. Yet throughout the world, Coptic Christians have faced the oppression of empires, persecution, and unspeakable violence—from martyrs like Saint Maurice in the ancient world to the 21 Coptic construction workers brutally executed by ISIS terrorists on a Libyan beach just 11 years ago. The violent persecution of Christians is a barbaric evil, and my Administration remains firmly committed to ending it in all its forms.,,,
As we celebrate 250 glorious years of American Independence, Global Coptic Day stands as a profound testament to a truth written in the very soul of this Republic—that the free exercise of religion is the cornerstone of our constitutional way of life, the first freedom enshrined by our Founders, and the liberty every tyrant has always feared and sought to destroy....
