ICC Note: A new law in Egypt might mean a great step forward in religious freedom for the North African nation. The suggested law would replace old church building laws that required approval from the local community in order to build a house of worship. This old law was so restrictive that, according to Coptic Solidarity, over the past six decades only two churches a year have been approved. All this has forced Egyptian Christians to celebrate mass and worship in private homes leading to angry mobs and targeted attacks on such homes.

08/30/2016 Egypt  (CNA): Christians in Egypt are hoping that a new law will make it easier for them to build churches, particularly after old laws effectively forced Christians to celebrate Mass in house churches.

“It is vital that the final law that gets passed should be acceptable to all parties and fully consistent with Article 235 of the constitution,” Dwight Bashir, co-director of policy and research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, stated to CNA.

Article 235 of the 2014 Constitution of Egypt mandated that the country’s parliament would “in its first legislative term” pass a new law about building churches “in a manner that guarantees the freedom to practice religious rituals for Christians.”

However, the parliament did not pass the law in its first term, and set a new deadline by the end of September.

Christians have encountered serious obstacles to building new churches in Egypt, thanks to old laws that require approval from the local community and from the president.

The group Coptic Solidarity noted that “over the past six decades” only two churches per year have been approved in Egypt, and there are only 2,600 churches in the entire country – “about one church for every 5,500 Christian citizens.” Meanwhile, there is “one mosque for every 620 Muslim citizens,” the group said.

Christians have resorted to having Mass said in their houses or other buildings, “triggering countless acts of mob violence, often backed by official indifference, complacency, or state intervention charging Copts on the spurious basis of using unauthorized places of worship.”

Thus, the new law to which the amendments are attached was supposed to ease the process of church building; Christians wouldn’t have to get approval from the president, but rather from the local leader, and there was reportedly a four-month timetable for an approval.

…

[Full Story]