EGYPT: Slow progress and violent protests hamper church permit process
Copts are frustrated by the slow pace of granting church permits and outraged by mob attacks on applicant churches.
Category: Egypt
EGYPT: New Coptic cathedral opened
On 6 January, Coptic Orthodox Christmas Eve, Egyptian Christians celebrated the opening of their new cathedral in Nasr City, 40km east of Cairo.
EGYPT: Seven Christians shot dead in Minya bus attack
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
EGYPT: Kom El-Loufy’s Copts celebrate new church building but others face closure
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”.
EGYPT: Churches attacked over building permits
Islamist mobs are attacking churches over the granting of government permits.
EGYPT: Young Copt shot dead in street
The militants shot Bassem Herz Attalhah in the head, killing him instantly.
EGYPT: Building starts at Kom El-Loufy
Copts of Kom El-Loufy, 250 km south of Cairo, began construction work on a new church building in December, ten years after filing an application.
EGYPT: One church granted permission; another attacked
Getting permission to open a church in Egypt is difficult and controversial, as highlighted by two recent cases.
EGYPT: Church attackers kill nine people in Helwan
Gunmen killed nine people in Helwan, just south of Cairo, on 29 December – six Christians leaving a church service, a Muslim police officer on security duty at the church building and two Copts in a nearby shop.
EGYPT: St George’s Cathedral reopens eight months after Palm Sunday bombing
St George’s Cathedral, Tanta, has reopened eight months after the Palm Sunday suicide bombing that killed 28 Christians and injured 74 others.