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Egypt’s PM approves 168 new church and worship buildings – CSW

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has approved the legalisation of 168 churches and worship buildings, religious freedom advocacy CSW has reported.

The UK organisation said the decision was made during a meeting of the ministerial committee overseeing issues relating to building and renovating churches and worship buildings. Some 126 of the buildings belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church and 42 belonging to evangelical churches.

The move follows the passing of a law in 2016 which meant applications for building or restoring churches or worship buildings had to be submitted to provincial governors. Previously such permission was only granted through presidential decree. 

Since the establishment of a committee in September last year to oversee the new law, CSW reports that some 508 churches and worship buildings have been legalised.

The news comes along with reports that police in Egypt have arrested a number of people in connection with an attack on pilgrims who had been returning home after visiting a monastery in Minya. Seven Christians were killed and at least 18 injured in the 2nd November attack.

Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of CSW, welcomed both moves but also urged Egyptian authorities “to take further steps to ensure that the constitutional rights of all Egyptian citizens are upheld, including through reforming the education system to include the history and contributions of every religious community to the development of the nation”.

Meanwhile, World Watch Monitor reports that an Egyptian court has sentenced a Coptic Christian to three years in prison after he was found guilty of “insulting Islam in the first degree”.

Abdo Adel, 43, from Menbal, a village in Egypt’s Minya governorate, 200 kilometres south of Cairo, was accused in July of publishing a post on his Facebook page that insulted Islam, as World Watch Monitor reported.

In his post, Adel had compared Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, with Jesus. Muslim villagers filed a complaint with police in the nearby city of Matai and Adel was arrested on 6th July on charges of insulting Muhammad and contempt of Islam. He was detained and his lawyer told World Watch Monitor at the time that if found guilty, he could receive a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Following his arrest, a mob attacked houses owned by Copts and the situation has remained tense ever since, according to Washington-based International Christian Concern, which suggested the judge may have handed down the sentence, which Adel will appeal, in the hope of restoring calm in the village.

“[I] was expecting this to happen in the first degree. But what I hope is that he will be freed in the appeal,” a close relative of Adel’s told ICC.

A lawyer familiar with the case said: “Usually the judge gives the maximum penalty in the first degree to secure himself that he applied the law, knowing that the other judge in the second degree will reduce or set him free.” Adel’s appeal is expected to be heard at the end of this month.

Regional security forces had to be deployed to restore order, as the attack left the Coptic community holed up in their houses, fearing for their lives, as World Watch Monitor reported.

Most of the 90 Muslims arrested following the riots – on charges of mobbing, attacking Coptic homes, inciting sedition and attacking the police – were released after a “community reconciliation session” at the end of July.

At the time, one of Adel’s relatives told World Watch Monitor: “Abdo is a simple man. He works in making the church’s bread [for use during Mass]. He is a very humble man and he is loved by all the church members. He is not good at reading and writing, and he is not good at dealing with his Facebook page in the best way, which put him and the village in this crisis.”

 

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