\u201cThe church is in the [St Marks] cathedral complex signaling the vivid symbolism of the explosion,\u201d\u009d says Ishak Ibrahim, a religious freedoms researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. \u201cIt aims at terrorizing the heart of Coptic Orthodoxy in Egypt\u201d\u009d.
\nThe terrorist group vowed further attacks and declared \u201d\u02dca war against polytheism\u2019 referring to the Christians\u2019 belief in the trinity pejoratively in a statement.
\nThis particular attack fits in with the pattern of ISIS\u2019s notorious aim to shock and awe, hitting a minority religion and at women. It also shows the difficult position Coptic Christians find themselves in Egypt today, as the largest religious minority in the Middle East at around 10 million people. On the one hand an easy target for a callous terror group. But on the other, living as a second class group in their own country, under a different kind of threat from the authorities.<\/p>\n