Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

After the Coptic Orthodox Church declared its refusal to implement the court decision binding it to allow remarriage for those divorced by court, believing that it goes against biblical teachings, it was heavily attacked and accused of challenging the judiciary and imposing its own state within a state.

 

The author argues that the Church did not claim to be above law. It stated that the Christian personal status law is based on the Bible and Christian law, and that the government has been recalcitrant since 1968 to respond to the Church’s official appeal to amend the bylaw of 1938, which violates the Christian law.

 

The author argues that while the media attacked the Church for refusing to implement the court decision, none called on the Minister of Justice to account for the reluctance in issuing a personal status law for Christians, and no member of parliament called for investigating that delay in issuing the law.

 

Ironically enough, the author points out, a story has been published recently about the trial by the Disciplinary Court of the State Council of a nurse who refused to start her job assigned by the Ministry of Health that ended in acquittal. The nurse justified her stance, stating that she refused the assignment upon her husband’s request, and the court decision was based on the fact that the obedience of the husband comes before the obedience of her director at work in Islamic sharī‘ah. In this situation the court ruled that the rulings of sharī‘ah come before civil laws. Why, the author wonders, doesn’t Christian law come before court decisions.