ICC Note: The Coptic community is once again facing grave disappointment as amendments to a draft law meant to allow for church construction has many dismayed. The amendments are considered “unacceptable” and “impractical”. Christians in Egypt have been under fire for the past few months with many attacks occurring under the assumption and rumors of church construction. Copts make up around 10 percent of the Egyptian population, yet they live as second class citizens, often unable to worship in a real church.

08/26/2016 Egypt (WWM): The Coptic Orthodox Church has voiced its dismay at amendments to a draft law that was hoped to put churches on a par with the country’s numerous mosques.

“The Church did not expect to see so many unacceptable amendments and impractical additions,” the country’s largest Christian body said in a prepared statement, declaring the proposed changes “a danger to Egypt’s national unity”.

“Due to the [added] complications and hurdles, those amendments do not consider Egyptian Christian citizens’ equal rights,” the 18 Aug. statement said.

The country’s House of Representatives was first presented with the draft law in mid-May. Holding its first session in January this year, it has been aiming to discuss and comment on a new priority legislation that would remove the many hurdles which often make building a church impossible.

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The Church’s disappointment stems from eight phrases in the proposed law, which a representative called “areas of ambiguity”.

“Article I defines a church as a ‘walled stand-alone building’, a condition which cannot be met in many villages,” news website Dot.Egypt quoted the source, who did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, as saying. “Article II makes the area of a proposed church contingent on ‘the need and number’ of local Christians. Who decides that Christians need or do not need a church in any given locality? As for ‘numbers’, they’ve always been contested, as the State inexplicably refuses to put a number to the Christian population.”

In the three-month period between May and July 2016, Copts suffered in excess of a dozen attacks, many due to rumours Christians were building a church that local Muslims deemed unnecessary.

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