A Christian MP has praised the Egyptian president for his role in trying to create good relations understanding between believers and Muslims in the c

Sir Gerald Howarth, Conservative MP for Aldershot, said that leaders which promote religious harmony need to be publicly acknowledged.

He also criticised Turkey's leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for "fomenting Islamism."

"His policy stands in stark contrast to that of Egypt's president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi," he said in an open letter to the Daily Telegraph.

President el-Sisi has been in office since June 2014 and is a Sunni Muslim.

Sir Gerald Howarth said that "in Egypt, mosque and church stand side by side and Mr Sisi himself has called for a religious discourse."

He admitted that there are still attacks on Coptic Christians in the country, but that "the president deserves credit for his attempts to promote goodwill between Muslims and Christians."

He went on to say that el-Sisi's actions angered one political faction, the Muslim Brotherhood, when he attended a Christmas Eve service.

Christians in Egypt have suffered persecution and punished for crimes outside of a proper legal process.

For example according to Open Doors several Coptic families were expelled from their village after someone was found guilty of publishing pictures against Islam in 2015.

Additionally a 70-year-old Christian woman was stripped and dragged through the streets in May after rumours that the woman's son had had an affair with a Muslim woman.

Sir Gerald Howarth has asked that people "need to be more emphatic in our support for those going in the right direction," and recognise when efforts are made to unite those from different religious backgrounds.