Pretext for procrastination
The number of the demonstrators reached some 10,000, which prompted Bishop Aghathoun to send out a call that no more demonstrators should join the sit-in, since they were already crowding the bishopric grounds and he was wary of their spilling over into the streets. This, he said, would carry risks of skirmishes with the security forces who had by then surrounded the site; a move that might lead to violence.
The demonstrators chanted slogans calling for the intervention of President Mubārak to resolve the problem, and denouncing the governor’s injustice and broken word. “We demand no more than our legitimate Constitutional rights,” Bishop Aghathoun said.
The congregation of Maghāghah and Adawa gathered 165,000 signatures demanding their right to a new church in place of the old one. Usāmah Mansūr, the legal consultant to Bishop Aghathoun, told Watanī that the bishopric had demolished the old church, leaving only the toilets and the bishop’s residence, after obtaining the governor’s permission for that. A part of the fencing wall was demolished according to prior agreement with the governor as included in the preconditions for the new building permit. Some 90 days passed, however, with no building permit in sight. The governor had not kept his word and the land was open to trespassers, so the bishopric rebuilt the demolished part of the wall. “Now,” Mr. Mansūr told Watanī, “General Dīyā' al-Dīn is using this as a pretext to withhold the building permit for the new church, claiming the bishop’s residence, the toilets, and the wall should be pulled down before a permit is issued.” The governor had refused to grant the permit for a new building while the old one remained, claiming he did not trust the Copts to later demolish the old church, and would never allow two adjacent churches. Now that the old church is no longer there, what is the point in squabbling over petty details? It is unthinkable that there should be no toilets to serve the congregation, which still worships under the marquee. There was a prior agreement with the governor that the bishop’s residence—a 40-square-meters wide building that should also be pulled down because of its deteriorated condition—should remain until a new one is built. As for the wall, it should be used to enclose the land against trespassers anyway.
Endowment
The talk show al-'Āshirah Masā'an (Ten PM) on the independent Dream satellite channel hosted General Dīyā' al-Dīn to talk on the issue last Monday. He said that the toilets and bishop’s residence ought to be removed prior to approving a permit for the new building, and the part of the wall which carries the crosses should be removed since he required the land to be handed over to Minia governorate and it should carry no religious symbols. To this Bishop Aghathoun replied that it was impossible to hand over the land since it was an official endowment to the Coptic Church. This legally precludes the sale of the land or its exploitation by any other user. “We intend to build a hospital on that land,” the bishop said. And as to the “no religious symbols” condition, how could that be when the land in its entirety was a Coptic endowment?
