Egypt parliament approves new church building law
Gamal Essam El-Din, , Tuesday 30 Aug 2016
A law aimed at freeing the
process of constructing churches in Egypt from bureaucratic red tape
gained the approval of the majority of MPs on Tuesday
Afterfour hours of stormy debate, Egypt’s parliament has approved
on Tuesday a landmark law aimed at making it easier for Christians to
build and restore churches.
The law gained the approval by a majority two-thirds of MPs, as stipulated in Article 121 of the constitution.
"I think MPs decided to approve this law only after leaders of
Egyptian churches signed off on it," said parliament speaker Ali
Abdel-Al, adding that "we could not approve a law that is rejected by
the three churches – the Coptic, Catholic and Anglican."
Abdel-Al said he has high hopes that the law will build new bridges
of confidence between Christians and Muslims and help foster national
unity in Egypt.
The 13-article law was approved by most political parties and
independent MPs, though it did not go down well with the
ultraconservative Salafist Nour Party – the only Islamist force in
parliament – and with some liberal Coptic MPs, including political
analyst Emad Gad and activist Nadia Henry.
Other Coptic MPs took a middle ground, arguing that "the law is a
progressive step, even though it still includes some negative points."
Margaret Azer, a Coptic MP and deputy chairman of the human rights
committee, said "we hope these negative points will be eliminated in the
future, but in any case this law is a good step."
Most of the criticism levelled by Coptic MPs against the law
focused on Article 2, which stipulates that the size of a new church
must go in proportion with the number of Christians in a certain
neighbourhood.
The article also states that the rates of population growth must be taken into account.
Gad described this stipulation as "restrictive and will still make it hard for Christians to build churches easily."
Henry, however, sharply attacked the law, calling it “a political
farce”and describing it as the law of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi
that was “imposed on Christians.”
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdi El-Agati said "article two
by no means imposes restrictions, it just simply states that we cannot
build a cathedral in a tiny village."
Henry insisted, however, that even if there is one Christian in a
certain neighbourhood, he or she should have the right to get a permit
for building a church.
The Islamist Nour Party rejected the law altogether, claiming that
it “violates Egypt’s 2014 constitution, which states in Article 2 that
Islam is the religion of the state of Egypt, Arabic is its official
language, and the principles of Islamic Sharia are the major source of
legislation."
"As you see, the constitution said Islam, not Christianity, is the religion of the state of Egypt," the statement said.
The party also argued that Christians are not in need of a new church building law.
"Under the current conditions, Christians enjoy fully their rights
as Egyptians and they exercise their religious duties in a free way,"
said the party's statement.
However, minister El-Agati said that "the law goes in line with
Article 235 of the constitution, which stipulates that a new law on the
construction and restoration of churches must be passed in parliament's
first session and in a way that guarantees Christians the right to
exercise their religious duties freely."
A report prepared by parliament's committees on legislative,
religious, housing, local administrative and cultural affairs argued
that Christians have suffered from many of legislative obstacles
standing in the way of building churches since 1856.
"When the Muslim Brotherhood reached power in 2013, Christians saw
their worst times," said the report, adding that "not only did the
Orthodox cathedral in Abassiya [east Cairo] face unprecedented assaults,
but then-president Mohamed Morsi took no action to safeguard the
cathedral from these attacks."
"The attacks against the cathedral continued for one hour, with
attackers pelting the building with rocks and gunshots, and this showed
that the [conditions surrounding the] building of churches in Egypt
should find a solution," said the report.
The report said the law addresses two main issues; making the
construction and restoration of churches easier through a number of
clear-cut procedures and dates, and retroactively granting licences to
operate for all existing churches and Christian places of worship as
long as they are structurally safe.
A government committee will be formed to review the conditions of
existing Christian places of worship and legalise within a year their
status.
"Until this committee finalises its job, Christians can exercise
their rituals freely in all existing churches and places of worship,"
said the article.
The law's articles were approved as drafted by the government,
though the committees that preparedthe report on the law made one
amendment to Article 5; stating that provincial governors "must" give a
final say - rather than "should" - on requests to build a church within
four months.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/242042.aspx
A more detailed report with critical voices was published in Mada Masr:
MadaMasr: parliament passes new church building law in three days
Bishop Bula explains the position of the Church:
On the background negotiations before:
MadaMasr on Tawadros-Sisi meeting in July 2016
MadaMasr: criticism of proposed church building law
MadaMasr: government produces new compromise law in 22 August
MadaMasr: Holy Synod approves latest government draft on 25 August 2016
MadaMasr: Cabinet approves of the compromise draft immediately
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