Cairo, Egypt, Aug 30, 2016 / 05:00 am
Christians in Egypt are hoping that a new law will make it easier for them to build churches, particularly after old laws effectively forced Christians to celebrate Mass in house churches.
"It is vital that the final law that gets passed should be acceptable to all parties and fully consistent with Article 235 of the constitution," Dwight Bashir, co-director of policy and research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, stated to CNA.
Article 235 of the 2014 Constitution of Egypt mandated that the country's parliament would "in its first legislative term" pass a new law about building churches "in a manner that guarantees the freedom to practice religious rituals for Christians."
However, the parliament did not pass the law in its first term, and set a new deadline by the end of September.