All Egyptians, Muslims or Christians, were shocked by Maurice Sādiq's recent declaration "of a separate Coptic state in southern Egypt" and even his selection of Coptic activist 'Ismat Zaqlamah as its president.

Sādiq, Chairman of the National American Coptic Assembly (NACA), who has recently been stripped of Egyptian nationality upon a court ruling, said the so-called state would be autonomous in the fashion of the Kurdistan state in Iraq.

Egyptian churches, on the other hand, vehemently rejected these statements and calls which they termed as "destructive for millions of Copts".