Al-Sisi Legalizing 1,882 churches, why now?

 

It was extraordinary that the new statement was issued on January 6, 2021, one day before the Copts celebrate Christmas in Egypt. The last report quoted some of the previous paragraphs.

The previous statement disclosure was not satisfied with monitoring everything that the head of the Egyptian regime, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had done to Copts since the coup of 3 July 2013, such as legalizing churches in violation of the law. He was directing orders to the army to build others, appointing Copts in more significant numbers to different positions, etc.

How the West Viewed this

This statement included, strangely enough, monitoring of the views of the American administration, the Vatican, and European governments about the extent of their satisfaction with what the Sisi regime had done to "take care of the interests of Egypt's Copts."

For this purpose, the West praised the Sisi regime as if it was also presenting an account statement to discourage him from criticizing human rights violations in Egypt and polishing the regime's oppressive image.

The statement, which included a comprehensive report in 3652 words, indicated that Sisi issued orders to the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces and the government to have churches in the new cities to "preserve the rights of Egypt's Copts."

According to the Council of Ministers, forty churches were built, 34 churches are still being installed in the new cities from July 2014 until December 2020.

Egyptian army is to direct airstrikes against camps, stationing areas, training, and warehouses of ISIS weapons in Libya to kill 22 Egyptian Christians, the report included.

It also included al-Sisi’s participation with Christians in their celebrations, as he was "the first Egyptian head of state to attend Christmas Mass in 2015, and he has attended them every year since then."

Al-Sisi is laying the foundation stone for the Church of the Nativity of Christ, which is the largest cathedral in the Middle East, was also highlighted. The Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque was the first facility in the new administrative capital of Egypt.

The report reviewed the most prominent reports of the State Department regarding the formation of the Supreme Committee to confront sectarian events by Sisi and the removal of texts that incite "violence and extremism" from the educational curricula.

The account statement quoted the American Committee on Religious Freedom report that Egypt witnessed a decrease in violence by 29 percent between 2018 and 2019. It exited from the classification of countries of concern for the fourth year in a row.

The report also reviewed the US embassy in Cairo, praising “the efforts made by Egypt to promote an inclusive and tolerant environment for citizens of all religions,” and the British government's assertion that attacks by “anti-Christian extremists” have been declining since 2018.

The statement also conveyed the appreciation of French President Emmanuel Macron for Sisi's efforts to recognize all religions, and guarantee freedom of worship and belief, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel's assertion that Christians in Egypt live in excellent conditions in practicing their religious rites.

The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, affirmed that Egypt, under the leadership of Sisi, "establishes the values ​​of coexistence, freedom of worship, respect for others, and the achievement of rapprochement and understanding between members of all religions."

The Guardian reported Christians in Egypt "see Sisi as the Savior," and Al-Monitor asserted that "Christians feel that their rights are more protected during the Sisi era, and there is a relative increase in their candidacy for positions and parliament."

Churches and Citizenships

On June 30, the story addressed the political, social, and legislative strengthening of the values ​​of "citizenship," as it is one of the most critical factors for the state's stability and an essential component of national security.

The appeal protection is demanded through a series of laws that guarantee the rights of the Christian brotherhood at various levels. 

Catholic Church and the Evangelical Community in September 2020 managed assets and funds endowed to benefit the Catholic and Evangelical Church.

The preparation of a centralized personal status law for Christians (Orthodox, Evangelicals, Catholics), for the first time after it was submitted by the three churches Ministry of Justice.

Likewise, the representation of Christians in parliaments and leadership positions has increased unprecedentedly. The number of Christian parliamentarians in 2021 reached 31 elected Christian representatives, compared to 5 Christian representatives elected in 2012.

For the first time in Senates history, the number of Christian seats will reach 24 in 2020, compared to 15 Christian centers in 2012.

The conservative movement also included for the first time the appointment of two Christians as governor in 2018.

The statement included Sisi declaring: "The state must build churches for its citizens, because they have the right to worship as everyone worships, and because this is the right of the citizen to worship as he pleases." 

He also affirmed, "We issued a law to build churches in Egypt after it was a dream for 150 years because the state is concerned with guaranteeing the right of worship for all its citizens."

He also added "the constitutional development in the Egyptian constitutions" regarding "citizenship and national unity."

In addition, an article to the constitution states that "the principles of Egyptian canons, both Christians and Jews, are the main source of legislation regulating their status and religious affairs."

Article 53 stipulates that "Citizens are equal before the law, and they are equal in rights, freedoms and public duties. There is no discrimination between them on the grounds of religion or belief."

Article 64 states that "freedom of belief is absolute, and the freedom to practice religious rites and establish places of worship for people of monotheistic religions is a right regulated by law."

According to the former head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Major General Abu Bakr Al-Jundi, in December 2011, the number of churches in Egypt reached 2,869, compared to 1442 in 1972.

Before the soldier's declaration, the Orthodox Church estimated in the book "The Churches Guide," published by the barred newspaper "Al-Badeel," the number of churches in Egypt was 1626 before 2011 1,326 were Orthodox, 100 Protestants, and 200 Catholics.

According to a study prepared by the counselor Hussein Abu Issa, the lawyer in the cassation and the former advisor in the military courts, the number of churches established in Egypt is about 3126, according to the newspaper Al-Masryoon, January 12, 2011 

According to "Ishaq Ibrahim, "the three churches in Egypt announced that the number of violating churches and buildings reached 3,733, according to "Ishaq Ibrahim," responsible for the Freedom of Religion and Belief file in the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights for the BBC website October 13, 2018.

This indicates Egypt agreed to legalize and license almost half of the violating churches until 2021.

However, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights issued several reports, the most recent of which was on January 6, 2020, criticizing the "slow legal procedures for churches."

It said that the file of regularizing the status of churches "is still going very slowly and in the absence of transparency" and that "these approvals are preliminary and conditional on demolition and reconstruction procedures and fulfilling the state's right and civil protection."

It indicated that the total number of final approvals during the three years from 2017 to 2020 is no more than 200 churches and affiliated buildings despite the official support of the committee during this period to reconcile the conditions of 1412 churches and buildings.

The initiative explained that "this number represents about 25 percent of the total number of churches and buildings that have submitted applications and amounts to 5,540, within three years of the Churches Law issued in September 2016.

A Reward or Right?

Most of the legalization decisions came before holidays, and Coptic occasions, or before Sisi traveled to Washington, or in conjunction with political events in which the church leadership defended the Egyptian regime.

After Pope Tawadros in supporting the coup of July 3, 2013, the Sisi regime began to tolerate the building of more violating churches, which caused sectarian clashes.

The legalization seemed like a "reward" for the church leadership for standing with Sisi since the 2013 coup. The crowd in the election elected representatives to pass the political coup projects, and in return for the Church's support for Sisi during his visit to Washington by mobilizing Copts to cheer him in the face of the opposition observers.

Legalizing the status of thousands of violating churches, disregarding their economic entity, and canceling an article in the 2012 constitution that allows for review of church oversight bodies was an apparent reward for Tawadros from Sisi.

Pope Tawadros achieved the first goal of approving the legalization of the violating churches until it reached 1882 churches and their affiliated buildings until April 2021.

Sisi achieved the second goal by abolishing Article 212 of the 2012 constitution, which the Church objected to after June 30, 2013. This article was deleted in the Fifty Charter, as well as the 2014 constitution. 

This article, which was put in place after the January 2011 revolution, was that the Church feared that its monasteries and churches would be subject to state control and reveal the property's size and the vast lands on which it is based.

The last of these rewards was to set laws for the Church and its endowments and not interfere in its economic projects, in contrast to Sisi's interference in the endowments of Muslims and directing his minister for endowments to invest the funds of the Islamic endowment in government projects.

Coptic human rights researcher "Ishaq Ibrahim" confirmed this in an article entitled "The Copts: The Lining of Interest, Obedience, and Fear" September 27, 2016, criticizing the church leaders' bartering of the interests of the community and its churches to satisfy Sisi and his political mobilization. 

Ibrahim said that the mobilization of the Church and Christian clerics for the Diaspora Coptic demonstrations to welcome Sisi to Washington "implicated the Church as playing a political role."

He referred to the use of Anba Baiman, the official in charge of the Church's Crisis Committee, and Anba Yannis, the Bishop of Assiut, "the carrot and stick method, with the Copts of the Diaspora to mobilize them" by talking about the Promised Land that flows with milk and honey and the gifts of the ruling regime.

He wondered about "the real reasons that lead the church leaders to engage either voluntarily or in implementation of political instructions, by taking positions that count against them and put them in the object of criticism, as they support a system that a sector of Egyptians sees as repeating the same old practices of violating human rights."

Ibrahim spoke of the "alignment of interest," where "the relationship between the ruling regime and church and Coptic leaderships has created - and still is - common interests from which the institutions of government benefit by using Copts in political mobilization, supporting the regime and improving its image externally."

On the other hand, "a small sector of Copts benefit from narrow or personal gains, such as building a church here or the consent of the rulers, which opens closed doors for them to reach higher positions."

The statement warned that "the post-July 3, 2013 regime favors the inclusion of the Church in the political equation, and considers it the exclusive agent to represent all Christians in Egypt."