by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – In an apparent effort to improve its relations with Egypt’s Christian community, the Islamic Egyptian government last month approved the legalization of 293 previously unlicensed churches and service buildings, All Arab News (AAN) reports.
Following recommendations from the Main Committee under Article 8 of Law No. 80 from 2016, the legalization approval was given during a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly on October 21.
Egypt will now have 3,453 churches and worship centers with legal status,
“Since the passing of that law, Egypt has moved to legalize churches built without prior approval, as well as authorizing the construction of new churches,” AAN said in its report. “The law was meant to address significant administrative and security hurdles in approving the construction of new churches following complaints from the Coptic Christian community.”
In a recent report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom confirmed: “Religious freedom conditions in Egypt are trending tentatively in a positive direction.”
“The country has seen a decrease in radical Islamist violence and anti-Christian mob attacks, some progress in implementing the registration process for unlicensed churches and related buildings, and the launch of a government program to address religious intolerance in rural areas,” the USCIRF noted.
Nevertheless, the USCIRF cautioned: “Systematic and ongoing religious inequalities remain affixed in the Egyptian state and society, and various forms of religious bigotry and discrimination continue to plague the country’s Coptic Christians and other religious minorities.”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A remote Indigenous community in western Canada was reeling Friday after a grizzly bear mauled a group of schoolchildren and teachers on a forest trail in British Columbia, injuring 11 people — two of them critically, according to local officials.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was expected to join a high-level phone call Friday on a U.S.-Russian proposal to end the war in Ukraine, amid escalating deadly attacks in the embattled nation, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Delegates assessed the damage from a fire that briefly spread through several pavilions at the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil on Thursday, the latest setback for the gathering known as COP30.
A strong 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook central Bangladesh on Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 300, authorities and local media said, as buildings in the capital Dhaka swayed violently and panicked residents fled into the streets.
Authorities say a boiler at a glue-making factory in eastern Pakistan exploded on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring 21 others, underscoring broader concerns over safety standards in the Islamic nation.
At least scores of students were abducted from a Catholic mission school in Nigeria’s troubled North Central region early Friday, just days after gunmen attacked a church, killing two people and taking dozens of worshippers hostage, officials and witnesses said.
The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday that it uncovered one of the most extensive and sophisticated Hamas tunnel systems discovered to date, a sprawling underground route running more than seven kilometers (4.3 miles) and plunging approximately 25 meters (82 feet) underground beneath Rafah.