Egypt’s cabinet considers legalization of unlicensed churches

CAIRO – 4 January 2018: Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mostafa Madbouly headed a meeting with the committee, formed by the Cabinet and assigned to legalize churches statuses, to consider the legalization of unlicensed churches on Wednesday.

During the meeting, they discussed the procedure to legalize the status of churches that were constructed without licenses، in accordance with the 2016 law regulating the construction and renovation of churches.

Madbuly issued a decision to provide all possible means to speed up procedures to legalize the situation of the unlicensed churches nationwide.

According to official statistics from 2011, Egypt has 2,869 churches and over 108,000 mosques.

Formed in January 2017, the committee was empowered to study and verify applications submitted by Christian congregations to legalize the status of churches and attached worshipping buildings.

The Coptic Orthodox Church has collected 2,500 requests from all parishes, all of which meet the requirements, a source from the church stated, pointing out that some date back to more than 150 years, to the days when Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire.

The head of the Evangelical Community in Egypt, Andre Zaki, stated earlier that the legal committee of the church has submitted 450 requests of unlicensed churches.