To the Editor:
In Egypt is it impossible for a Christian church to make repairs, let alone construct a new house of worship. An attempt to do these things is the occasion of deadly riots and killings, with no police protection. The legal obstacles to building a church in Egypt are insurmountable.
The following is an excerpt from a 2010 report, “Religious Freedom in Egypt,” by the Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation heritage.org/research/reports/2010/11/religious-freedom-in-egypt:
“Faced with these obstacles, Christians often resort to building illegal churches. The existence of these churches or the mere rumor that Christians are buying a piece of land in a village in many cases leads to an angry reaction by their Muslim neighbors. That simply a rumor of a church being built automatically leads to violent attacks on the alleged church site and nearby Christian houses and shops is perhaps the best illustration of the state of religious freedom in the minds of Egyptians. Most of these attacks result in wounded Christians, financial losses, and terrorized minority communities.”
Yet the Muslim community of Bayonne happily goes forward to build themselves their Islamic Center, when the nation(s) from which they emigrated would deny a similar right to Christians.
I think that the approval for the center should be conditioned upon the successful lobbying efforts of Muslim community leaders in Bayonne to allow the swift construction of a Coptic Christian Community Center in Cairo, Alexandria, or other city in the Arab Republic of Egypt. If I am in error in my assertions, I would welcome a letter from the Muslim community stating that there are no obstacles to the building or repair of Christian houses of worship through the Arab Republic of Egypt, and further that Christians and Jews are not referred to by the derogatory term kuffar.
BRUCE D. KOWAL