WATANI International
25 January 2009
In the course of its six-month-old campaign to pass legislation for a unified law for building places of worship in Egypt, Watani cited opinions by a significant number of MPs and Shura members who were mostly in favour of such legislation. Several said they would demand explanation from the government why such a bill was not placed on the agenda of the current parliamentary round, while others said they would take the lead in proposing relevant bills.
Two new proposals for bills for unified legislation for the building of places of worship have been submitted to Parliament. The first was submitted in 2006 by former MP Mohamed Esmat al-Sadat who is now coordinating with MP Talaat al-Sadat to resubmit it. The second was submitted by independent MP Kamal Ahmed. Following is a briefing on the most prominent features of each bill. It is obvious that none of them contradicts any previous relevant bill proposed to Parliament during the last five years. If anything, it proves there is a general will to pass such a law.
The proposal by Sadat stipulates that:
Article I: The building, expansion, restoration or renovation of places of worship should be licensed by the administrative authority concerned.
Article II: Buildings for social or health services may be attached to places of worship already licensed or requiring licence, according to the building code.
Article III: Applications for licensing works listed in Article I should be submitted on the official application forms and according to the building code to the administrative authority concerned. Attached should be a list of the required works, their cost, sources of finance, architectural and construction drawings, and the authority concerned with running and maintaining the building, as well as proof of payment of fees required.
Article IV: Applications for licensing places of worship should be submitted to the governorial administrative authority in the governorate concerned. Applications for licensing all other works should be submitted to the local building authorities. The administrative authority should list in a special register the date of receiving the application and hand proof of receiving it to the applicant.
Article V: Provided Articles VI and VII of the building law 106 of 1976 are not breached, and following the necessary checks; the administrative authority should issue its decision on licensing places of worship within no later than two months, and no later than one month in case of other applications.
Article VI: Decisions on building of places of worship are issued by the heads of the local government following approval by the local people’s councils. Decisions on other applications are issued by the local building authorities. If the period stipulated in Article V expires and the application is not rejected—citing reasons for rejection—the application is automatically approved. The applicant should inform the administration of the start of works.
Article VII: Rejection of licence applications should be contested before the relevant courts within 30 days since rejection date.
Article VIII: Suitable areas of land should be allocated for building places of worship in urban communities and new towns.
Article IX: Decisions issued according to this law and any disputes regarding their execution should be contested solely before the administrative court and should be swiftly resolved.
Article X: Decisions by the administrative court may be exclusively contested before special courts formed within the Supreme Administrative Court.
As for the bill submitted by MP Ahmed, it differs from the above law in the following:
Article II: It is not allowed to build or licence a place of worship within an already existing building, or that such a building should be licensed for use as a place of worship.
Article VI: The decision to build a place of worship should be issued by the minister of local development after consultation with the governor concerned.
Article VIII: In new urban communities places of worship should be at least one kilometre apart in case they belong to different religions, and two kilometres apart in case they belong to the same religion.
Article XI: Violators of articles of this law are subject to the statutes Article XXII of law 106 of 1976 regarding the regulation of building works.
The above obviously indicates a near-consensus on passing a unified law for building places of worship. It only remains for the government to exercise the political will to place the bill on the agenda of the current parliamentary round.
