Egypt’s Cabinet on June 22 approved President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s proposal to extend the state of emergency by an additional three months, a move that rights advocates fear will further curtail freedoms in Egypt.

In a speech on the occasion of Laylat Ul Qadr (the night when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad), Sisi sought to justify the planned extension by highlighting the threat posed by extremist groups “that spread hatred and use religion to achieve their political goals.”

“Beware, this is the season of evil when 'they' will stop at nothing to undermine our stability and security,” he warned. Sisi was clearly referring to the militant groups that have targeted Egypt’s minority Coptic Christians in a recent spate of terrorist attacks claimed by the Islamic State. Twenty-six Christians were brutally killed and an equal number were injured May 26 when gunmen ambushed a convoy of Christians traveling from the southern province of Minya to a desert monastery. Six weeks earlier, twin church bombings that occurred moments apart in the Nile Delta city of Tanta and in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria claimed the lives of 44 people (mostly Christian worshippers attending Palm Sunday Mass), prompting Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency nationwide. In a televised speech hours after the attacks, Sisi warned that the war against jihadis would be “long and painful ” and accused foreign powers of fueling instability in Egypt.

Skeptics argue that the regime is using the state of emergency to target government critics and opposition figures; they lament the government’s heavy-handed crackdown on dissent, which they claim has led to a spike in terrorist attacks.