French solidarity group l’Oeuvre d’Orient has called on the international community to “extend its action to Egypt and to support the struggle of the Egyptian State against terrorist groups,” following the terrorist attacks targeting Copts, Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner writes for La Croix. Hoffner writes that the motivation behind the attacks is “to condemn the government as being incapable of protecting its own citizens” as well as to show Egyptians Daesh’s “capacity for harm” but “without necessarily provoking a sense of animosity.” Separately, the leader of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop of Armagh Dr Richard Clarke, has urged people to pray for Coptic Christians in Egypt, describing the victims of the attacks as martyrs.

…The attacks on Egyptian Christians are part of a pattern of rising terrorist and mob attacks on non-Muslims in Muslim countries, Farahnaz Ispahani writes for the Huffington Post. HA Hellyer says in The National the attacks in Egypt and Iraq show a need for a new understanding of the social contract between Arabs.