WATANI International
26 September 2010
Coptic studies at the Bibliotheca
The first international conference on Coptic studies was held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) last week. The conference aimed at forming a board of trustees or a higher authority under the aegis of the BA to sponsor Coptic studies in Egypt. The proposed body includes associations, intellectuals, businessmen and those who are interested in Coptic studies, research and seminars. More than 120 speakers from 13 countries, including Greece, France, England, Portugal, the US, Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic and Egypt participated.
Three oil agreements
The Oil Ministry has signed three agreements for oil exploration in Upper Egypt. The first, between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation on one side and the US Apache and British Dana Petroleum on the other, extends exploration rights of the US and British companies in eastern Beni Sweif area at a minimum investment of USD12.5 and drilling five new wells. The second agreement, signed with the US Mierlon Company, covers exploration in Fayuum. Mierlon will invest USD24 million and drill six wells. The third stipulates that Ganoub al-Wadi Petroleum Holding Company should invest USD8 million to explore for oil in the Uwainat, south of Egypt.
Tax exemptions
Egypt’s Real Estate Tax Authority has announced the exemption of six million people and nine million units from property taxes this year, making up some 90 per cent of the tax base. Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali said that studies of the evaluation of real estate industrial units have been completed, and similar studies for real estate in the tourism sector particularly hotel facilities, are underway.
According to the real estate tax law, property used for commercial, industrial or service purposes will only be subject to corporate tax. The value-added tax on the profits of such activities is sufficient, Ghali said, and has priority over the real estate tax in that it prevents a misplacement of the tax burden from producers of goods and services to the end-user. Houses and flats valued at less than EGP450,000 are exempt from taxes, while those valued at EGP1 million will be taxed EGP660 a year.
Food security
Over three days earlier this month, the Agriculture Ministry joined the United States embassy in Egypt in holding a conference in Cairo on food security. More than 20 Middle Eastern and North African countries took part in discussing the problem, as well as the systems concerned with food security in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. The conference tackled means of enhancing dialogue among food organisations in all three regions.
Support for niqab ban
Abdel Moeti al-Bayoumi, member of the council of clerics at al-Azhar, applauded France’s ban on the full face veil, saying that niqab has no basis in Islamic law, Qur’an, or Sunna. “I personally support (the ban) as do many of my brothers in the Islamic Research Academy. My position against the niqab is actually older than France’s,” said Bayoumi, who has authored a book against the practice.
Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Islam authority worldwide, has opposed the face veil in Egypt where most women wear hijab. The institution follows a traditional, moderate Islam different than the Salafi school followed in Saudi Arabia.