Coptic movements and figures slammed a so-called fatwá by Dr. Yāsir Burhāmī, the deputy chairman of the Salafī Da’wah (Call) Movement, rendering as harām (religiously forbidden in Islam) any taxi drivers getting priests to their churches and said “this is worse than driving some people to pubs”.

Father Rafīq Greish, the official spokesman for the Coptic Catholic Church, said the statements are “nothing but idiocy that should not be replied to” while Fādī Yūsuf, the founder of Egypt Copts Coalition, said Burhāmī’s words are not a fatwá but a fitnah (sedition). [Mustafá Rahūmah, Muhammad Hamdī and Haytham al-Shaykh, al-Watan, July 20, p. 3] Read text in Arabic