On September 28, 2016, the Church Construction law was issued, and until December 2017, 20 incidents related to either churches built without a permit or the attempt to build new churches occurred, the most recent of which was St. Tadros Church in Kfar alWaselin in Atfih.
These recurrent crises point to the existence of actual problems in the articles of this law, which everyone hoped that it will end the crises. There are also problems related to the neglect of applying the law and the absence of the law implementing regulation and this is the biggest obstacle to the law as there is no law without implementing regulation.
The problem here lies in some security and bureaucratic decisions regarding the construction and restoration of churches, which is puzzling as the law become useless in certain cases. The first problem of this law is the presence of some officials who deal with it as if it does not exist, for example, Some officials gave only oral approvals to build churches, which confirms the continuation of the old approach that existed before the law and granted a limited number of churches licenses, resulting in the existence of hundreds of churches without a license that is supposed to be considered by the Reconciliation Commission formed by a decree issued by the Prime Minister.
Secondly, following the same old approach known before the passing of Church building law, violates the law as according to the new law, the churches must obtain legal approvals before the start of construction, and the deadline to apply to legalize the existing churches is over, and then this way indicates the existence of Churches recognized by the public and prayers are held in it but without a written approvals from officials like St. Tadros Church in Atfih, yet no official decisions were issued by the competent governor, which makes them exist on the ground and not found in official records?
Thirdly, their is no fixed and specific rules or guide for the issuance of building churches decisions, which is reflected in the misunderstanding of a number of governors who are supposed to be responsible for the issuance of building churches licenses, as for example questions are raised on the existence of law implementing regulation or not. The governor of Minya, for example, gave licenses for the restoration and construction of 21 churches belonging to evangelical denomination in 2017, and at the same time did not give permission to build a Coptic Orthodox Church in the village of Kom alLoufi in Samalot or the Church of St. Virgin Mary in alFurn village in Menia, where the Copts prayed on the street so their is double standard it applying the law according to the vision of the governor.
Fourthly, The Coptic Orthodox Church has sought to legalize 2,500 churches and ministry buildings status, The Evangelical community has about 700 churches and ministry buildings, and almost the same number for Coptic Catholics, While other denominations have about 100 churches. These are not final numbers because there are churches licensed but closed, and opened churches that are not on the list, So why the formed Committee did not apply the law and legalize the churches that already exist by issuing one decree to license all the churches, and end the problem and pay attention to other ones?
Finally, it is possible to avoid the problems of the articles of the law, which were welcomed to be tested on the ground by issuing the law implementing regulation that will solve the existing crises. On the other hand, the rule of law must be enforced by the state by granting the license or to refrain and not to leave extremists and darkness forces to attack the churches and buildings and destroy them under the pretext of being unlicensed?
