When Abdel Fattah el Sisi seized power and became Egypt’s president in 2013, roughly 8 million Coptic Christians thought they’d found a new champion in their struggle for equality in the majority Muslim country.

Sisi promised to tame radical Islam and crack down on jihadists. Pope Tawadros, the head of the Coptic Christian Church, and the rest of the church hierarchy were firmly in Sisi’s corner. Tawadros even referred to Sisi as a “savior” and “hero.”