The draft of the bill pertaining to building churches, prepared by the most prominent Christian Churches and groups in Egypt, has been sent last week to the Egyptian government.
It’s anticipated they will wait until the next elections to form the new parliament to find out if there will be analysis of the new law for constructing buildings specifically as places of Christian worship on Egyptian soil and its authorization. Metropolitan of Catholic Copts in Giza, Bishop Antonius Aziz Mina, told the Fides News Agency: “The aim of our suggestion is to facilitate the implementation of simplified and clear procedures based solely on the law, and free of any type of discrimination.” The bill was delivered to the Judge Ibrahim Al-Hindi, current Minister of Justice and National Reconciliation to be examined by the minister’s bureau. It’s expected Parliament will discuss this bill in its first session. According to local sources, there is no clause in the bill linking the building of churches to the proportion of Christians in various areas, and one clause specifies a 60-day ultimatum for rejection of a license to build a church. As soon as the 60 days pass, the project is considered approved, according to preliminary approval principles. The proposal presented by Egypt’s churches, local council authorities have the prerogative of granting licenses to build Christian places of worship, precisely the same as constructing private buildings, without any interference by the central administrations or provinces [governorates].
