DOWNTOWN CHURCH KINDLES HOPES FOR COEXISTANCE
Andrew Bossone

Al-Masry Al-Youm
Thu, 28/01/2010 – 18:55

A tall church erected in downtown Cairo offers an alternative view
to sectarian tension

Recent sectarian violence has once again thrown the spotlight
on alleged discrimination against Egypt’s Christian minority,
overshadowing the historically peaceful state of coexistence between
Egypt’s Muslim and Christian communities.

For centuries, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side in Egypt
until the majority of Egypt’s Jews departed following the creation
of the state of Israel in 1948. Today, Muslims account for roughly
90 percent of Egypt’s national population, while Christians account
for some 10 percent–although reliable figures are notoriously hard
to come by.

Within the last decade, Christians have sporadically been the target
of sectarian violence. What’s more, many Coptic Christians in Egypt
complain of official anti-Coptic discrimination, citing in particular
the bureaucratic difficulties associated with building and renovating
churches–both of which require the direct approval of the president
of the republic.

The recent construction of a church in downtown Cairo, however, tells
a different story, with church administrators and congregation members
saying they encountered little difficulty obtaining building permits.

"This is a church of the pope–he stands behind us," said church
member Wadia Aziz, referring to charismatic Coptic Pope Shenouda III.

"It’s very clear with the government [how to obtain permission for
church building]."

According to the engineer overseeing construction of the new
church–who preferred to give only his first name, Adly–land for the
church was purchased three years ago from its Muslim owner. Located
on a quiet street in Cairo’s Bab el-Louk neighborhood, the church
had to meet two requirements for construction: it had to be at least
200 meters from the nearest mosque and it had to be acceptable to
residents of the area.

"There are mosques all over the country, thank God," said Mokhtar,
a Muslim shop-owner on the same street. "We don’t have any objections
if there’s a church here."

Other attempts at church building, however, have been less successful.

In November 2008, police closed a factory that had been slated to
become a church in Cairo’s Ain Shams neighborhood after a wave of
protests by local Muslims. And in recent years, a number of clashes
have erupted in Upper Egyptian villages after Muslim residents accused
their Christians counterparts of turning buildings into places of
worship without official approval.

On 6 January–the eve of Coptic Christmas–six church deacons in
the Upper Egyptian town of Naga Hammadi were killed in a drive-by
shooting. While the state press portrayed the killing as an act of
revenge for the alleged rape of a local Muslim girl by a Coptic man
months earlier, Christians and activists have attributed the violence
to longstanding and deep-seated sectarian tension.

Most churches in Egypt are flanked by walls and have security guards.

Many only permit entry to Christians. Mosques, by contrast, are
generally open to anyone, while only tourist sites will typically
have a security presence.

The new downtown church will feature both heavy walls and a security
door. An Armenian church nearby, meanwhile, is building a new wall
around its perimeter, but church officials insist these are simply
meant to replace an earlier, dilapidated wall–not to protect
churchgoers from anticipated acts of violence.

"We Armenians have had a prestigious heritage in Egypt since pharaonic
times," said Armenian church official Motran Ehorghorios. "We’re not
afraid at all."

Adly, engineer of the new church, agreed that the threat of sectarian
violence was not the motivating factor behind building walls.

Nevertheless, he said, such precautions would serve to provide
congregation members with a sense of security in an age of "global
terrorism."

"In general, people are good," he says. "It’s only the terrorists
that want to scare people. And it isn’t only the Christians that are
afraid of them."