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
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh organizations into the Muslim Brotherhood. For many years, he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and served on its Guidance Bureau. He was called "one of the Brotherhood's most respected members" but he quit its Guidance Bureau in 2009 then quit the Muslim Brotherhood in 2011. When he was the head of Cairo University's student union, Abou al-Fotouh had a discussion with President Anwar Sadat. He accused Sadat and those who were working with him of being 'brown-nosers' because they banned Mohammed al-Ghazali from speaking in public. Abou al-Fotouh was arrested in 1981 in the famous September arrests that