In a television interview with Egyptian TV on Jan. 7, Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt said that Christians and Muslims are united in Egypt, but that Seventh-day Adventists, along with others, are disturbing the unity in the country.

Emphasizing his love for Muslims, Shenouda also listed as unity disturbers Jehovah’s Witnesses and American Jews.

Shenouda’s comments followed a message from the president of Egypt, Hosny Mubarak, declaring Coptic Christmas, Jan. 7, as a national holiday for Christians as well as Muslims.

“Pope Shenouda is known for making controversial statements,” said Dr. Bert B. Beach, general secretary of the Council on Inter-church/faith Relations at the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. “In view of the rather tense situation in the Middle East, one would expect Christian church leaders not to make irresponsible statements that can exacerbate Christian-Muslim relations. It is important to work for peaceful relations, both among Christians and across religious borders,” he said.

“Seventh-day Adventists in Egypt are regarded as peaceful and law-abiding citizens of that country,” Beach continued. “The Adventist Church is always ready to dialogue with other Christian churches and work in harmony for the good of Egyptian society.”

Adventist Church leaders in Egypt made an appeal to the president of the television station. Peter Zarka, president of the church in the region, says that they were “assured by the TV president that the [Adventist] Church will have some minutes on TV when it can introduce itself to the public of Egypt and, by this way, the TV [station] can compensate the Adventist Church for the insult.”

In an interview with the Adventist News Network, Beach explained that “Pope Shenouda has said that Adventists do not believe in the divinity of Christ and that they are Zionists. Both these statements are not only astonishing, but untrue. The divinity of Christ and the trinity are for Adventists long-standing fundamental beliefs. For Adventists, the state of Israel has no special prophetic significance, but is simply one of the scores of states recognized by the United Nations,” he said.

According to Zarka, this would be the first time the church has been given the opportunity to present a message on Egyptian television. Christian churches are given airtime just two times a year—at Christmas and Easter, for the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church.

The Adventist Church in Egypt is not an immigrant church, Beach explained, but it is “an Egyptian church that has been organized in that country for more than a century.”