Egypt granting legal status to 191 churches brings hope to Christians

The Egyptian government has issued an executive order legalizing 191 churches and affiliated service buildings belonging to different Christian denominations, bringing the total number of places of worship granted legal status since 2016 to 3,804.

The order was issued on May 19 following a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli and marks the 30th batch of approvals by the government committee created to oversee church legalization, the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported this week.

Under Egypt’s Church Construction Law, or Law No. 80 of 2016, approved by the Egyptian Parliament on Aug. 30, 2016, authority to approve the building and renovation of churches was extended to provincial governors. Before the law took effect, the authority had rested solely with the country’s security agencies.

To qualify for legalization, churches must meet structural and safety standards, prove land ownership and pay required fees, noted Mission Network News.

Large numbers of places of worship built over the past decades still remain without legal status, said CSW President Mervyn Thomas, welcoming the latest order and urging the Egyptian government to continue the process.

Thomas also called on Egypt to extend these policies to include Ahmadiyya, Baha’i and Shia Muslim communities, saying such a move would honor the rights set out in the Egyptian constitution and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s stated commitment to religious freedom and equality of citizenship.

The same requirements that apply to churches under Law No. 80 do not govern Sunni Muslim houses of worship, and the Ahmadi, Baha’i and Shia communities are excluded from the law’s coverage altogether.

Duane Friesen of Voice of the Martyrs Canada, which documents and supports persecuted Christians, was quoted as saying that the latest approvals represent a positive development but that Christians continue to face serious difficulties as a religious minority in Egypt, where he said the state has long struggled to support the existence of other religious groups.

Friesen also pointed to concerns, including Christian families facing pressure when daughters are targeted for forced Muslim marriages, and Christian men encountering employment discrimination when their faith becomes known.

He cautioned that as pressure for church registration grows, so can government oversight of Christian activity in the country.

The church approvals came as a separate legal effort for Christian rights stalled in the courts.

An Egyptian court last month rejected a petition seeking to establish Easter as an official national holiday, according to the advocacy group ADF International, which supported the petition.

The court declined to rule on the petition’s merits, saying on procedural grounds that the question falls under the jurisdiction of the prime minister rather than the judiciary. Religious freedom advocates from multiple Christian denominations plan to appeal the ruling.

Because Sunday is a regular working day in Egypt, Christians who take time off to observe Easter risk losing pay and face workplace discrimination. Students who miss class for the holiday can suffer academic consequences.

Egypt has taken some limited steps in recent months on the question of Easter observance. In December, the Ministry of Manpower granted leave to Christian private-sector workers to observe the holiday, though it did not extend the same protection to public-sector workers.

The December decision also created a disparity among denominations, granting more paid leave days to Coptic Christians than to Evangelicals or Catholics.

The Coptic Church, the dominant Christian denomination in Egypt, traces its origins to the Apostle Mark, who is said to have founded the church in Alexandria in the first century.