Persecution of Copts Copts complain that the police do not respond when crimes are committed against them. Copts also have little representation in government, leading them to fear there is little hope of progress. In 1981, President Anwar Sadat, internally exiled the Coptic Pope Shenouda III accusing him of fomenting inter-confessional strife. Sadat 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. The government and other Egyptian sources blame tribal behavior in rural Egypt for much of the violence. During Mubarak's regime (following that of Anwar Sadat),
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