Persecution of Christians Gopalganj District. Foreign missionaries are allowed in the country if they restrict their activities to social improvements and refrain from proselytizing. The Coptic Pope Shenouda III was internally exiled in 1981 by President Anwar Sadat, who then chose five Coptic bishops and asked them to choose a new pope. They refused, and in 1985 President Hosni Mubarak restored Pope Shenouda III, who had been accused of fomenting interconfessional strife. Particularly in Upper Egypt, the rise in extremist Islamist groups such as the Gama'at Islamiya during the 1980s was accompanied by increased attacks on Copts and on Coptic Orthodox churches; these
Assassination of Anwar Sadat October 1981, when Sadat's Vice President, Hosni Mubarak, became the new Egyptian President for nearly 30 years until resigning as a result of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Islambouli and the other assassins were tried before an Egyptian court-martial, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad in April 1982. In 2012, Khaled Al-Islambouli's mother spoke highly of her son's actions to the Iranian Fars News Agency. She said "I am very proud that my son killed Anwar Al-Sadat… The government called him a terrorist, a criminal, and a murderer." Assassination of Anwar Sadat The assassination of Anwar