120 churches, affiliated buildings nationwide licensed by gov't

CAIRO - 17 October 2018: The Egyptian cabinet has approved the licensing of 76 churches and 44 affiliated buildings per a 2016 law in a major wave of legalization of Christian venues.

Lawyers of the churches requested licenses for the 120 religious buildings after the law was approved. The approval may be withdrawn if the buildings did not finish civil protection facilities in four months.

That some of the said churches had been operating outside of the legal framework was used by extremists as a premise to attack those outlets, or incite such attacks in rural areas.

Many churches, regardless of their legal status, were sabotaged by Muslim Brotherhood supporters after the dispersal of a major sit-in that demanded the reinstatement of President Mohamed Morsi in August 2013. Many of the affected churches were renovated by the government in the following years.