WATANI International
In the course of Watani’s campaign to rally support for the bill of the unified law of building places of worship the only opinion that went against the bill was that of Maher al-Darbi, head of the parliamentary Local Administration committee. Mr Darbi’s opinion was that the bill, if raised in Parliament, would cause an uproar, so he said he would oppose placing it on the agenda. “There is no need for that bill,” he stressed. “According to the Constitution, Islam is the formal religion of the
It should be stressed that the Constitution, which stipulates Islam as the State religion and Islamic sharia the main source of legislation, does not contradict the building of churches. Neither Islam nor sharia ban the building of churches, and the Constitution stipulates equality and full citizenship rights for all Egyptians regardless of religion. It furthermore cites the protection of freedom of belief and practice of religious rites as due to all. Any suggestion that there is conflict between the different articles of the Constitution in that concern is thus not valid, and merely serves to create unwarranted problems. The matter has already been settled by Islamic scholars, intellectuals, and the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), all of whom now call for equal legislation to govern the building of churches and mosques, legislation that would pry the matter out of the grip of the security apparatus.
As for the allegation that the building of churches disregards the feelings of the Muslim majority, it calls to mind a reminder that Muslims and Christians have lived along the
It is my belief that the opinion expressed by Mr Darby is the outcome of the climate of fanaticism, which is itself the outcome of a defective culture and a religious address foreign to
The equality between Muslims and Copts which would be consolidated through a unified law for building places of worship should in no way be seen as a confrontation between the Muslim majority and Christian minority. The bill cannot be passed without the consent of the Muslim majority; in fact it was members of this majority who first proposed the bill four years ago and who have ever since strongly supported it. And all through Watani’s campaign to rally support for the bill, I can proudly attest that it was this Muslim majority which strongly backed the bill, absolutely denying that church building is a matter of national security or harm to public interest. I thus invite Mr Darby to reconsider, and to join hands with the national caucus for the bill.