Meanwhile, the Coptic Evangelical Church delegation’s visit to the Muslim Brotherhood, during which the two sides discussed means to reach an agreement over national issues, has raised many questions about the group’s relations with the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
A few weeks after the January 25, 2011 revolution, there was talk about an expected meeting between the Brotherhood and the Coptic Orthodox Church but eventually they just came down to only a phone call by the group’s murshid (guide) Dr. Muhammad Badī’ to Pope Shenouda III to enquire after his health after he returned from the United States, where he had medical checkup.
Bishop Marqus of Shubrā al-Khaymah said the pope’s health condition encumbers any meetings as he is ill and cannot move easily, pointing out that the papal office is the party that should raise questions about the nature of relations between the church and the Brotherhood.
“There has to be some communication between the Brotherhood leaders and the church in order to reach some coordination on the grounds that good ties can melt the ice,” Bishop Marqus said in statements to al-Ahrām.
Dr. Rashād Bayyūmī, the deputy murshid, however, said there are no current contacts with the church to arrange for a visit, expressing his group’s wishes to have a meeting with the Orthodox Christians like what happened with the Evangelical Christians.
Rafīq Greish, the media spokesman for the Coptic Catholic Church, denied any expected meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood but termed relations between the two sides as “intimate and marked by friendship and respect”. [Hānī ‘Izzat, al-Ahrām, March 1, p. 5] Read original text in Arabic
