The file of legalizing the status of existing and unlicensed churches is one of the important files that Watani newspaper is concerned about. The total number of churches and its services buildings, which submitted their papers to the Committee for the legalization purposes according to the law, reached 3730 churches that the committee started working on them on 28 September 2017. The Committee issued its last decision on April 21, 2019, which was published in the newspaper as well. This decision was issued by the Prime Minister to reveal the number of legalized churches, which reached 111 churches and service buildings. The total number of the legalized churches reached then 864 churches out of 3730, which represents 23% in 20 months. This means that 2866 churches and services buildings are waiting, which represents 77% of the total work. This means that it would take 66 month in addition to the previous 20 months.

Now as the Egyptian Parliament has accepted the request submitted by 155 MPs to amend the Constitution, Egypt embarks on the crucial phase during which the proposed amendments are discussed and drafted, then put up for public referendum. Let us look into Article 226 of the Constitution, which governs the approval of any constitutional amendment. The article comes under the Chapter VI titled: “General and Transitional Provisions”. It reads: “The president of the republic, or one-fifth of the members of theParliament, may request the amendment of one or more articles of the Constitution. The request should specify the articles proposed for amendment and the reasons for amendment. In all cases, the Parliament shall discuss the amendment request within 30 days of the date it receives that request. The Parliament shall issue its decision to accept the request in full or in part by a majority of its members. If the request is rejected, amendment of the same articles may not be again requested till the following legislative round.

We, the Egyptians, celebrated Christmas this year and were very happy to receive a special gift from the president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, which is the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East in the new administrative capital. Moreove,r it was opened at the same day with the mosque of Fattah Aliem. The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar visited the Cathedral and the mosque was visited by Pope Tawadros. Furthermore, president has delivered a speech in which he denounced violence and sectarian attacks and supported equal citizenship. Such great picture was aired by international media and we were proud to hear the president assuring the right to freedom of worship and defending equal citizenship among all. However, we realized that we will never get rid of extremism so fast just by building a mosque and a church!

We received news from the parliament that an MP has presented a bill requiring the government to remove religion from national ID cards and official documents. This matches the Egyptian Constitution which stipulates non-discrimination among citizens, and that equal citizenship is the only basis in that account. The Egyptian identity must be considered instead of religious identity. Dr Ismail Nasreddin, presenter of the bill, said that he is supported by more than 200 MPs out of the 596 in the parliament, and assured that removing religion will be in all documents that don t require mentioning religion, not including for instance birth or marriage certificates.

On 21 October I wrote an article entitled: Question to the church, government and parliament: Where is the personal status law of Christians? I talked about the importance of this law to the Christians in Egypt to allow them to follow their own legislations. This was at the beginning of the recent round of the House of representatives whose plan included the general personal status law. I wondered: where is the dedicated law for the Copts that was mentioned right after the constitution of 2014? If it is still with the church, why is it still waiting out there? If it is by the cabinet, why wasn t it sent to the Parliament? If it is by the Parliament, why it was not passed? After I published that article, I started searching for the answers. I started with the church, though it was not likely to be there; however, it was! Sources in the church told me that the law is still at the church s Court and it was not yet sent to the government, as it is still being revised by the Catholic church, before it is finally passed to the government. In fact, I couldn t understand the reasons behind such delay, which exceeded 4 years. The church is the sole beneficiary and the sole loser from that law. I hope such delay comes to an end and the law is passed soon. Moreover, I hope it will include the equality between men and women concerning the inheritance.

For the second time, Egypt is terrorized by a terrorist crime witnessed near the Monastery of St. Samuel in Minya governorate. This comes after former terrorist attack at the same area last year. This time at least 7 people were killed and 15 wounded. I offer my sincere condolences to families and friends of the victims of this horrible attack and for those who were wounded. The church had to suffer twice from such attack that tests its faith and tolerance of its peaceful congregation. Patriotism is also another subject for this test. However, unity is the only way before Egypt that has to unite its people, army and government. The evil terrorism insists on targeting Egypt and its innocent people.

One year ago, the Law for the Building and Restoration of Churches went into effect and stipulated that non-licensed churches would be legalized provided they submit the required documents to a dedicated committee. Each single case had to complete its application. This means that all 3730 applications submitted to the committee had to fully meet the requirements otherwise they would have not been accepted and listed by the committee. Therefore, I was thinking that the committee will finish its work on a good rate, but the truth is I was disappointed by the slow rate. In 11 full months, the committee issued approvals to legalize 220 out of the 3730 churches and service buildings, which means that 3510 applications are still waiting in line.

Since our beloved newspaper Watani cares a lot about political party reform in Egypt and was named among our major concerns, we held a meeting with representatives of political parties to discuss their problems and future. The most recent editorial was published on 22 April 2018 under the title: “Time for Party reform”. It will also be the theme of a series of sessions of Watani Forum, the first of which was held some two weeks ago. The forum will be hosting representatives of Egypt s political parties with the aim of exploring the current party scene and figuring out the measures and moves needed to reform it in order to boast robust, effective parties in the future.

Rain in most countries rain is considered a blessing and not a catastrophe. It is a blessing since it waters thirsty lands and plants, and is used and stored in reservoirs for use according to need. The exception to the rule is when rain comes as a natural disaster such as in a hurricane, storm, or torrential flood. Egypt is a different story as rain is concerned a sign of suffering and destruction. It brings on fluster, chaos and complications that amount to disaster. The catastrophic outcome cannot be attributed to nature s wrath; rather, it is the result of gross negligence by authorities which they fail to control.

People expressed their anger over the decision of President Trump to declare Jerusalem as capital of Israel. This decision was issued 1995 by the Congress, but was avoided for 22 years by three former US presidents: Clinton, Bush and Obama. In Egypt, newspapers headlines reflected such anger and wrath accusing Trump of giving another Balfour Declaration and Demonstrators erupted to burn US and Israeli flags and effigies of Trump. We have to realize our reality if we in the Arab World are serious about becoming doers rather than mere responders to what others does. The masses can do nothing but expressing their anger, but the governments and ruling regimes must do more than denounce or reject the US decision, or export news of their people s angry protest against it. They should instead adopt political stances and decisions that would demonstrate to the US and its President the magnitude of their wrongdoing. We must realize that the US is driven by its strategic interests and national security; this was what made three former US presidents persuade Congress to put off the 1995 decision going into force, in order to avoid anticipated escalation in the Middle East crisis. The three former presidents chose to stabilize the peace process befo

Under the huge economic and political challenges in Egypt, it is fighting corruption and striving to reform education. It also tries to fix healthcare and cultural ideology. Hard working also reach raising the standards of living, especially for the underprivileged and to do the best to attract investment and bring in job opportunities. Among that hassle, a number of MPs declare they intend to demand an amendment to the Constitution so as to extend the presidential term from four to six years. They can t see we have much important work to do and we don t have the luxury to do so. It should be known that the 2014 Constitution was written after Egypt got rid of the Muslim Brotherhood regime. the constitution was written by faithful Egyptian people to established the mainstays of a modern civil State. The new Constitution clearly separates between State authorities, and meticulously defines their prerogatives and roles, with the aim of protecting democracy and securing peaceful rotation of power. Furthermore, we don t have the luxury to demonstrate in the streets and change the constitution whenever we don t like the performance of the government.

The Egyptian parliament has a great history, with many politicians leading it since the 19th century. It has always respected freedom of speech and reason. Members of the Egyptian parliament have always used a decent language to express the harmony of the political life in this great country. I say this as I am full of sorrow feelings and frustration for what our parliament reached nowadays. In fact, I tried many times to avoid writing about the performance of this parliament, but I couldn’t stop myself upon watching the final discussion of the Convention on the demarcation of the border between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

President Sisi returned from Addis Ababa to lead the country in facing the repercussions of the terrorist attack that horrified Egypt and its people as well as the armed forces causing many victims from army and civilians. Now, Egypt is mourning her dear children and is more determined to face this terrorism. Yes, we know that our war with terrorism won’t come to an end so soon. There is a big difference between a war with a normal enemy and terrorists who hide to attack without having respectful rules or standards.

For a long time, the Copts have been demanding their rights to build new churches and their restoration. It’s true that the legislative reform in this regard has not yet been achieved, but it is clear that soon it will be. This should be part of the history as the Copts have realized that claiming their rights is misused by Islamic currents that separated the Copts from the community and treated them as guests or even slaves in their own homeland. They announced that no churches should be built or restored in an Islamic country.

The new government of Engineer Ibrahim Mehleb comes amid confounded political, economic and security situation. This is pretty much the same conditions the former government faced right after the revolution of June 30 and the ouster of president Mohamed Morsy.

The 50-members committee to amend the 2012 constitution has finished all amendments to the Egyptian constitution, which brought us a new constitution that meet the demand of many segments of the Egyptian people after the revolution of June 30. I won’t start citing the articles and criticizing them as many people would do. Voting in the upcoming referendum on this constitution and keeping the unity of the Egyptian people during that is way more important. Here, I want to say that the new constitution is a good one that deserves to get our support. It takes Egypt to a whole new era of respecting rights, freedoms, equality, citizenship, human rights and democracy.

Egypt is writing its constitution, which is hopefully going to entrench a civil and democratic state of Egypt that preserves rights of all Egyptians without discrimination based on race, color or religion. This is how constitutions usually work: They underscore the basic rights and principles to ensure rights and equality among all citizens, then comes the laws to explain and carry out such rights and principles.

The Egyptian government has finally moved to implement the authorization of the people to eliminate the terrorism of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, security forces moved wisely to disperse Rabaa El Adaweya and Nahda sit-ins. This was a strong message to the fanatics says: the people are fed up with your threats.

Egypt was turned upside down after Netherlands had granted asylum for the prosecuted Coptic Christians in Egypt. It was a great chance for many anti-Copts politicians, journalists or Islamists to attack the Copts and accuse them of treason as well as defaming Egypt. Many public figures have condemned asylum seekers claiming that Egypt has no racial discrimination at all, and said that Netherlands is trying to interfere in the Egyptian internal affairs, affecting its national solidarity badly!

We love the Easter as it reminds us of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the joys of victory over death. It brings us a great deal of optimism and hope in a bright future for Egypt and the Coptic Church. Egyptians have been suffering for four years under the ruling of extremists, but thanks to God that we have overcame such dark phase soon.