ICC Note: In two separate villages in Upper Egypt, hard line Muslims gathered to protest against churches who were seeking official recognition by the authorities. The building of churches in Egypt remains a highly contested issue, despite the passage of the 2016 law which authorities alleged would make it easier for churches to become legalized. Instead, the process remains effective at keeping churches closed. It is common for mobs to gather and threaten violence as a tactic to keep churches from operating.  

08/28/2018 Egypt (Wataninet) –  Two villages, some 450km apart, in Upper Egypt have seen demonstrations by hardline Muslims against the presence of two de-facto churches in the villages. The two churches, both unlicensed, have officially applied for legalisation of their status, meeting all the legal requirements for legalisation according to the 2016 Law For the Building and Restoration of Churches. The law stipulates that it is illegal to close down any unlicensed church that has officially applied for legalision.

The village of Sultan Basha in Minya, some 250km south of Cairo, was the scene of demonstrations on Friday 24 August by scores of Muslim villagers who headed to the village church, a small de-facto, unlicensed one, shouting: “We don’t want a church here”. The Copts informed the police who directly arrived, dispersed the demonstrators, caught three Muslims who had damaged the CCTV cameras on the church wall and gate, and restored peace.

A police force remained in the village, threatening the perpetrators of the violence that they would not get away with it, and that the law would be enforced “with an iron fist”.

This was not the first demonstration against the church in Sultan Basha. The village had witnessed several such demonstrations last July, which led to police closure of a church consecrated to Anba Karass. The incident was especially conspicuous because a security figure had stood up and promised the Muslim demonstrators that there would never be a church in Sultan Basha. Anba Macarius, Bishop of Minya, issued a statement condemning such defiance of the law.

On 31 July, the security chief of Minya was changed, and Minya got a new chief: Major General Magdy Amer.

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