CAIRO: A leaked draft of a law drafted by Egypt’s interim Cabinet regulating the building of houses of worship stirred debate among both Muslim and Coptic communities.
The three Coptic Churches (Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical) had demanded to discuss the law, whose leaked draft was published in state-run press, before it was drafted, while 15 Islamist lawyers filed two complaints to the Prosecutor General and the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) against Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, saying the amendments violate Muslims’ rights to build mosques.
Deputy Head of the Coptic Patriarchy in Abbasseya Bishop Sirgious Sirgious told Daily News Egypt that the heads of the three churches are coordinating and discussing the draft law, and demand that the Cabinet discuss it with them before passing it.
“We are waiting for Pope Shenouda to come back from his medical visit to the US to hold a meeting with the heads of the three churches,” Sirgious said.
“The Cabinet should discuss the law with the Pope before it is approved,” he added.
Head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization Naguib Gobrael told DNE that the three churches have reservations over some articles of the draft law, saying it “brings Copts back to square one.”
He explained that one of the articles disregards the legitimacy of the judiciary and the right to resort to the judicial system in case a permit to build a church is rejected by the administrative body.
He added that the law should have guaranteed the right to appeal the rejection of the building permit before the Administrative Court, obliging the court to issue a verdict within a period of three months.
“Article 6 of the draft law gives the Minister of Local Development the authority to issue the building permit after consulting the governor, which is an unnecessary complication because the local council should issue the permit directly,” Gobrael added.
Meanwhile, Islamist lawyers said the draft law is unconstitutional, arguing that some of the proposed articles would “stir Egypt’s anger if implemented and threaten social peace and national unity. Only God knows how far that will go.”
The lawyers warned that this law would fuel sectarian strife. “No one has ever heard about a unified law for places of worship in countries with different religions that contradict the basic rules of justice,” the complaint read.
“Our beloved Egypt is known for its 1,000 minarets. The church was side by side with its oldest mosque of Amr Ibn El-Aas in a sign of Islam’s tolerance. It has never seen a law that restricts the building of mosques and prevents Muslims from prayers like this draft law,” the complaint added.
It slammed many of the draft law’s articles, especially the one stipulating a distance of at least one kilometer between houses of worship as a requirement to issue the building permit.
“In crowded villages the density of the population reaches thousands per one kilometer squared and definitely one house of worship will not be enough for them. Where can the millions of Muslims pray? Are we going to pray on the streets or will this also be banned? And why should Muslims pray on the streets while Copts pray in their churches?” the complaint read.
The lawyers also criticized an article which stipulates that a place of worship should measure no less than 1,000 square meters, which they say is against the teachings of Islam that don’t specify a certain surface area for a mosque.
They added that the required space is too large and would cost millions of pounds to build which most Muslims cannot afford.
“This draft renders illegal the thousands of small prayer spaces attached to residential buildings because there aren’t enough mosques,” the complaint read.
“The draft law clearly discriminates against Muslims and limits their freedom to build mosques, which may lead to an unprecedented wave of anger,” lawyer Mamdouh Ismail, who is also a member of the human rights committee at the Lawyers’ Syndicate, told DNE.
