Egypt eases restrictions on church renovations

Cairo, Egypt — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak eased long-controversial restrictions on church repair Dec. 8. His decree allows churches to implement basic repairs without waiting for government approval. For major church renovations, governors must now process requests within 30 days and can only reject an application by producing detailed reasons for the decision.

Many Copts remain skeptical of the decree’s vague wording and  its failure to resolve fundamental inequality between the construction of mosques and churches. “This decree will solve almost 80 percent of our problems: rebuilding old churches,” Safwat El-Baiady, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, told news service Compass Direct. “But we have to be very frank, it doesn’t solve all our problems.”