Riddle of Sectarian Problems in Egypt

Source:
The Cairo Review of Global Affairs (AUC)
Date of source:
8 Oct 2015

Excerpts of an article about church building:

The past five years however, have demonstrated that the country continues to face interreligious concerns, both institutional and societal, that eclipse the easing of restrictions for Christian places of worship.

“One of the most recent decrees permitting the building of a church was issued by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi last February in the aftermath of the murder of Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, a gesture meant to honor the loss of the village. Of the twenty-one victims, thirteen hailed from the village of El-Aour in Minya. On March 27, shortly after construction had started, a group of Muslim residents protested against the establishment of a church in the village. That night, a group of unknown assailants attacked the construction site and nearby Christian-owned properties.

Following the attack, a reconciliation meeting, overseen by the governor of Minya, was held between representatives from the village’s Muslim and Christian communities. A decision to change the location of the church was reached.”

The author provides other examples of reconciliation meetings that follow Muslim resistance to church building and argues that “in some respects, Christians are dealt with as a separate community governed by different laws” and that equal treatment is needed. “Establishing the proper rule of law, and de-politicizing the church, is also the only way to stem Egypt’s rising sectarian violence” that is documented in the Esshad project that “has recorded more than 280 instances since June 2013.”

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <b> <br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.