A Christian Coptic Orthodox Monastery in Lower Egypt. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Hundreds of supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the ousted Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, gathered in front of St. George Church in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag last weekend and raised the black flag of Al-Qaeda over the church.

According to Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based Coptic human rights organization that cited a local Egyptian report in Shorouk News, the Islamists chanted that Egypt should be an “Islamic [state] despite [the wishes of] secularists.” The church immediately closed its doors after the demonstration and prevented the entry or exit of its members.

Additionally, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters surrounded a church in the Egyptian city of Girga to denounce Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros and his support for the interim military-backed government.

The head of Al-Qaeda, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a recent recorded message accused the U.S. of plotting with Egypt Coptic Christians, the country’s military, and secularists to overthrow Morsi.

“Crusaders and secularists and the Americanised army have converged… with Gulf money and American plotting to topple Mohamed Morsi’s government,” al-Zawahiri said, according to a translation by Sky News.

Al-Zawahiri also said that Egypt Coptic Christians were plotting to overthrow Morsi to obtain “a Coptic state stripped from Egypt’s south.”