■ Some observers have pointed to the pope’s November 2015 visit to the Central African Republic, where Christian and Muslim militias have long clashed, as a model. Francis took off his shoes at the threshold of a mosque and said, “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters.”

Tight security and empty streets reflect a nervous air.

Cairo wore a deserted air Friday morning, with little sense of the public anticipation that preceded the 2000 visit by John Paul. White-clad police officers and intelligence officials carrying radios stood guard over a major bridge that crosses the Nile. Soldiers wearing balaclavas sat on armored vehicles at the intersection of deserted streets. Traffic was light, with many Cairenes apparently deciding to stay at home (the weekend starts on Friday) or away from districts that Francis will be visiting.

The tight security is largely a reflection of the nervous security situation, following a spate of recent Islamic State attacks on Christian churches. But it also reflects a deep-seated antipathy toward mass public gatherings by the Sisi government, which has outlawed public protest.

The pope will balance outreach with a defense of Christians.

Francis, a politically savvy pope, will attempt a balancing act. He is expected to highlight the plight of Christians after recent violence in Egypt, while also continuing his mission to reach out to Muslims. Since December, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has signaled its intent to wage a sectarian war in Egypt by killing Christians in their homes, businesses or places of worship.

Some conservatives in the church want the pope to deliver more strident and direct criticism of militants persecuting Christians in the name of Islam. But Francis has been committed to encouraging closer ties to the Muslim world.

A host with little tolerance for dissent.

Among the many tightropes Francis will have to walk is the woeful human rights record of his Egyptian host. Mr. Sisi has enjoyed loud support from Egypt’s main Christian leaders, led by Tawadros, for his tough talk about Islamic extremism. But Mr. Sisi’s strongman methods — mass detention, stifling free speech and, rights groups say, torture and extrajudicial execution by security officials — stand is stark contract to Francis’ message of peace.

Mr. Sisi further entrenched his power on the eve of Francis’ visit by signing into law new measures that allow him to appoint the country’s top judges. The law was rubber-stamped on Wednesday by Parliament, which is stuffed with Sisi supporters, and critics saw the law as the latest effort in Mr. Sisi’s drive to marginalize even the mildest critics.

An embattled Christian community.

In the early centuries of Christianity, Egypt had a Christian majority. But in the 20th century, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, two world wars and the rise of the Pan-Arab nationalist Gamal Abdel Nasser contributed to an environment in which some Coptic Orthodox Christians felt endangered and began to leave.

Egypt, a country of about 90 million, is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim today. An estimated 10 percent of the population is Christian, nearly all of whom belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church. A vast majority of the Jewish community, who once numbered in the tens of thousands, left in the mid-20th century.

Muslims and Christians live peacefully in much of Egypt, and the country’s richest family, headed by a telecommunications magnate, Naguib Sawiris, is Orthodox Christian. But an ugly strain of sectarian prejudice runs though society, backed by discriminatory laws, which has at times led to violence.

The worst trouble tends to occur in rural areas with large Christian populations, where Muslim mobs burned homes and attacked Christians as recently as last month. Christians complain that, when clashes occur, officials nearly always side with Muslims. More worrying still is the specter of attacks by militants.

After the Arab Spring, Christians pressed for a secular, democratic state that would better protect minority rights. Many saw the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists as an ominous turn and were openly relieved by the military takeover that removed the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi from power in 2013.

Mr. Sisi, who removed the Muslim Brotherhood from power, has pleased some in the Vatican with his efforts to better safeguard the rights of the Christian minority, though many remain troubled by his crackdowns on the Brotherhood and other political enemies.

The bombings this month — and oppressive laws barring Christian converts from changing their religious affiliation on identity documents, and imposing stiff restrictions on church building — showed that Egypt is still a trying place for Christians to live.

A Coptic church in Cairo. An estimated 10 percent of Egypt’s population is Christian, nearly all of whom belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church. CreditTomas Munita for The New York Times 

Religious freedom in Egypt.

A recent report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom removed Egypt from the category of “country of particular concern,” after six years on the list. Instead, Egypt — which designates Islam as its state religion and considers Shariah, the legal code of the Quran, as an inspiration for legislation — is now listed among nations where religious freedom is a concern.

The report also noted that Mr. Sisi had attended a Coptic Mass on Christmas Eve for a third successive year. He offered condolences in 2015 to Tawadros after a separate massacre of Coptic Orthodox Christians by Islamic State militants, this time in Libya, and personally apologized to a 70-year-old Christian woman who was stripped naked and dragged through the streets by a Muslim mob in May.

While the previous year’s report had noted that a “climate of impunity” was still pervasive, this year’s observed a greater sense of legal accountability, with an increase in imprisonment for those who persecuted Christians.