Category: Egypt

On 21 May, President al-Sisi opened a new church building in Alexandria, while later that day an existing building in a village 65km away was destroyed by the local authority.

On 2 April, 74 more church buildings and affiliated service buildings were granted legal status.

On 31 December, a Cabinet committee granted licences to a new batch of ninety churches and affiliated service buildings.

Egyptian police have closed churches in Qalyubiya and Sohag governorates following violent protests by Muslim mobs.

On 8 April, the government committee tasked with assessing church applications legalised 111 more church buildings.

Copts are frustrated by the slow pace of granting church permits and outraged by mob attacks on applicant churches.

On 6 January, Coptic Orthodox Christmas Eve, Egyptian Christians celebrated the opening of their new cathedral in Nasr City, 40km east of Cairo.

At least seven Christians were shot dead and 19 were injured in a terrorist attack on buses carrying pilgrims to a monastery in Minya on Friday 2 November

Kom El-Loufy’s Coptic community is celebrating the opening of its new church building, but elsewhere the authorities are closing church buildings for “security reasons”.

Islamist mobs are attacking churches over the granting of government permits.