Laws organizing the building of houses of worship in Egypt for non-Muslims date back to the Ottoman era, reflecting a crisis in the state’s duty to protect freedom of religion, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said in a recent study.
Named, “Permission to pray: The crisis of building houses of worship in Egypt,” the study criticizes the legal stipulations for building such premises, which it claims have led to escalating sectarian tension, mostly between Muslims and Copts.
This only technically includes the building of churches, as the Muslim majority in Egypt is given the unlimited right to build mosques, and the Jewish population is diminishing, EIPR points out.
The study slams the constitutional guarantees of religious freedoms that only include the “heavenly religions” — Islam, Christianity and Judaism, which it says violates the rights guaranteed by international treaties of freedom of religion.
EIPR refers to the Ottoman Reform Edict (ORE) of 1856, issued to grants rights to non-Muslim citizens of the Ottoman Empire. “Muslims in the Islamic Caliphate are the nation’s main body, and followers of other religions are minorities, subject to the supremacy of Muslims represented by the Caliph,” EIPR’s study detailed, suggesting this is still reflected in the laws of 2014.
Sectarian tensions have been endemic in Egypt for 40 years, in many cases due to attempts by Copts to build or restore old churches. Presidential decrees continue to be issued regarding the building of churches, depending heavily on recommendations from state security.
The debate concerning the building of houses of worship intensified following the January 25 revolution, as sectarian tensions increased. Church representatives consistently complained about the lack of legislation allowing for building amid the security vacuum that ensued.
The study by EIPR outlines the differences between the religious freedoms stipulated in Islam, and shaped by an Islamic history of granting rights to religious minorities, and constitutional, rights-based edicts that it maintains should be applied to grant the religious freedom of all citizens, regardless of their affiliations.
The Egyptian legal system and verdicts of the judiciary over the last 60 years generally stipulate, according to EIPR, that there is no contradiction between the two, despite the obvious differences between them.
EIPR thus recommends the need for legislative reform that puts an end to the executive authority limiting the religious activities of non-Muslims and grants them equal rights to build houses of worship.
The study called for cancelling ORE, as well as introducing reforms to the constitution that currently limit the rights of the followers of “non-heavenly” religions to build houses of worship in Egypt.
