Only two days ago Beni Sweif governor Maher Beibars had approved the restoration work for the roof of the church of Mar-Mina in the village of Daramalli, and had forwarded his
Only two days ago Beni Sweif governor Maher Beibars had approved the restoration work for the roof of the church of Mar-Mina in the village of Daramalli, and had forwarded his approval to the legal and building authorities at the governorate.
Yesterday, however, and in a surprise move which the Copts of Daramalli in Beni Sweif some 100km south of Cairo described as inexplicable, the secretary general of the governorate of Beni Sweif, Sherif al-Gamasi, ordered a commission from the building authority to measure the area of the church of Mar Mina in Daramalli.
Both the governor’s decision and Gamasi’s move come in the wake of a problem that arose earlier this month when a mob of hardline Salafi Muslims
surrounded Mar-Mina’s and insisted that the construction work on the church roof should be stopped. Despite the fact that Mar Mina’s already had official licence, signed by Governor Beibars, to replace the old dilapidated wooden roof with a concrete one, the Muslim mob succeeded in forcing the church officials to halt the construction work.
A committee from the building administration at the governorate inspected the construction work and the licence and, basing on its report, the governor approved the restoration work. Since work, however, cannot be resumed till all official procedures are completed, it now has to wait for Gamasi’s approval.
Daramalli Copts insist the Mar-Mina’s has complied with all the official permits, and “not one square centimetre is out of order”. They complain that, instead of using such methods to deprive them of their fully-licensed restoration of the church or to at least delay it, the authorities should be looking into the flagrant building violations that have been going on unchecked in Beni Sweif since the January 2011 Revolution. These violations make some 12,000 cases of encroachment on agricultural land, the River Nile, major roads and markets.
WATANI International
31 August 2012