Decision to allow worship at unlicensed churches pending formal recognition

A number of Christian clergymen and political commentators have welcomed the latest decision by Egypt’s Ministry of Housing to allow Christians to practice religious rites at unlicensed churches pending their formal recognition as places of worship.
A committee was formed in January 2017 by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to review requests to formally recognise unlicensed churches.

The committee was formed in accordance with law no 80/2016, which eases restrictions on the building of churches.

The housing ministry’s decision came upon a request from Archpriest Michael Antoun, the Coptic Orthodox Church’s representative in the committee, according to a statement by the ministry.

Archpriest Antoun said that the Church has presented requests to formally recognise 2,600 churches and affiliated buildings in all Egyptian governorates by the end of September 2017.

Antoun said that the 2016 law allows religious rites to be practiced at unlicensed churches pending the legalisation of their status.

The ministry’s decision comes one month after a mob of Muslims stormed a building in Giza’s Atfih over a rumor that the premises would soon be officially recognized as a church. A number of Christians were injured in the incident.

In October 2016, four churches were closed in Upper Egypt’s Minya governorate following sectarian clashes over the premises being used as Christian places of worship without a licence. Christian officials and clergymen protested the decision to close the churches.

Before the church building law was passed in 2016, Christians – who make up an estimated 10 percent of the country’s nearly 100 million people – had long struggled to obtain permits to build churches, with the process at times taking years.