Presidential Message on Global Coptic Day

On Global Coptic Day, we celebrate the enduring faith, time-honored traditions, and remarkable resilience of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Holy Family fled to Egypt and sought refuge from persecution, blessing the land that later became home to one of the world's oldest Christian communities. When Saint Mark the Evangelist began spreading the Gospel in Egypt decades later, he planted a seed that would grow into the extraordinary Coptic Orthodox Church.

Today, Coptic Christians throughout the United States enrich our national life through their devotion to God, love of family, and steadfast witness to the blessings of faith and freedom. Yet throughout the world, Coptic Christians have faced the oppression of empires, persecution, and unspeakable violence-from martyrs like Saint Maurice in the ancient world to the 21 Coptic construction workers brutally executed by ISIS terrorists on a Libyan beach just 11 years ago. The violent persecution of Christians is a barbaric evil, and my Administration remains firmly committed to ending it in all its forms.

As President, I proudly established the Religious Liberty Commission to safeguard the free exercise of faith and protect the fundamental rights of religious believers across our country. The Commission is also tasked with working to further the cause of religious liberty around the world. America stands as the ultimate example of freedom to the world, and we will always defend the right of every person to live out their faith openly, freely, and without fear.

As we celebrate 250 glorious years of American Independence, Global Coptic Day stands as a profound testament to a truth written in the very soul of this Republic-that the free exercise of religion is the cornerstone of our constitutional way of life, the first freedom enshrined by our Founders, and the liberty every tyrant has always feared and sought to destroy. The faithful of the Coptic Orthodox Church, who have carried their cross through centuries of fire and suffering to emerge stronger each time, remind every American what it truly means to stand firm in faith, endure with courage, and trust in the providence of Almighty God.