Coptic Christians battle prejudice in Egyptian football Youth members of "Je Suis" football academy, an initiative to protect the rights of Christians in sport, sit together on a pitch in the country's second city of Alexandria. Under the name "Je Suis" in French, or "I am", the academy's founder Mina Bendary started the initiative after being told by football club officials to use a different name to conceal his religion if he was to play professionally in the majority-Muslim country.