A senior Salafi preacher has issued a religious decree that says women and Copts are prohibited from occupying the post of vice president.

Sheikh Yasser al-Borhamy, the deputy leader of the Salafi Dawah, made the decree in response to a visitor to his website who asked the sheikh about his opinion on an announcement made by Ahmed Deif, an adviser to President Mohamed Morsy who said the president was considering appointing two deputies — a woman and a Copt.

Borhamy said a vice president, who fills the president’s place in his absence, should not be a woman or a Copt, though he said women and Copts an serve as advisers to the president.

The sheikh said religious texts cannot be applied in full to a reality in which they do not fit.

“The current state cannot be described as an Islamic republic,” he said. “Mohamed Morsy has been elected as president rather than a caliph; he is the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, with the powers of a president of a modern constitutional state.”

Salafis adopt a literal interpretation of Islamic texts and reject the idea of women and Copts occupying senior posts. Meanwhile, many members of those two groups hope for a larger role in post-revolution Egypt.

Morsy, who was officially sworn in Saturday as the new president, has reportedly been in negotiations for the formation of his presidential team and the new Cabinet members.