Egypt's Azhar, the country's highest Islamic Sunni authority, condemned the terrorist attack which killed at least seven Copts and injured twenty near the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Upper Egypt's Minya on Friday afternoon. Al-Azhar extended its condolences to all Egyptians and to the families of the innocent victims. In an official statement released on Friday evening, Al-Azhar said "the culprits of the cowardly terrorist attack are criminals who were stripped of basic human values and are as far as could be from the teachings of religions, which call for coexistence and peace, the renouncing of violence and hatred, and criminalizing the killing of the innocent." Al-Azhar stressed that "the targetting by terrorists of Egyptians will only increase their determination marching foward united in the war against terrorism." Egypt's Minister of Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa also condemned the "terrorist, sinful and vile attack," saying "an attack on any person on Egypt's soil is an attack on all Egyptians." Gomaa said that it was a "religious, patriotic, and human duty to report any terrorist." Egypt's parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal also condemned the attack, saying "it aims to undermine the security and stability of the country." Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi had issued a statement on his official Facebook page shortly after the attack mourning the victims, vowing to continue the war against terrorism. The President also called Pope Tawadros II, the head the Coptic Orthodox Church, to extend his condolences to the families of the victims. Meanwhile, Egypt's prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek has dispatched a team of prosecutors to the site of the terrorist attack to start investigations.
