Egypt: Questions emerge as August sees series of church fires

Egypt | 25 August 2022

The worst among the eight recent cases was the fire during Sunday worship at the Abu Sefein church in Giza, caused apparently by an electrical fault in an air conditioning unit. 41 Coptic Christians died.

CNN reported on 15 August 2022 that there had been a devastating church fire during Sunday worship at the Abu Sefein church in Giza, caused apparently by an electrical fault in an air conditioning unit. 41 Coptic Christians - including 18 children – died, due mainly to suffocating smoke. Both President al-Sisi and al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Al-Tayeb offered their condolences as well as financial aid to the families of the victims. The president also ordered army engineers to take on the responsibility of rebuilding and redecorating the church (Arabnews, 15 August 2022).

According to World Watch Research analyst Michael Bosch, local contacts report that at least seven other fires have taken place in August at various church locations. He states: “For instance, on 16 August, it was reported that the Anba Bishoy church hall in the Minya governate had caught fire (Arabnews, 16 August 2022); and on 21 August, a fire started in the garbage area of the Holy Virgin Convent in Dronka, Assiut governate (Watani international, 21 August 2022). Although the fires all seem to have been caused by negligence or electrical malfunctioning, it is not entirely clear if all the outbreaks can be viewed entirely as a coincidence. A fire in a church in Alexandria on 21 August, for instance, may have been due to faulty electrics in the air-conditioning (Egypt Today, 22 August 2022) or could also have been the work of arsonists (Watani, 22 August 2022).

Michael Bosch continues: “Despite the positive response from Egypt’s political and Islamic authorities, one of the root causes for the Giza fire remains unaddressed: Up until the introduction of the church building law in 2016, it was almost impossible to erect new church buildings (EIPR, 2 July 2019). Hence, Christians were forced to make use of other buildings as churches, often with an inadequate system of fire exits. The Abu Sefein church, for instance, is located in a four-storey residential complex with poor levels of fire safety for serving more than five hundred worshippers. The 2016 Church Construction Law made it easier for churches to be officially registered, but up to April 2022, out of the 5,540 registration applications, only 2,401 church buildings received approval since the law was passed (Mada Masr, 17 August 2022). But while churches can now receive legal status, in practice it often remains difficult to adapt a church building or build a new one, a) due to cumbersome government safety requirements, which seem less strict for new mosques or other buildings; and b) due to local Muslim communities objecting violently to the presence of an officially recognized church in their midst. Although Coptic Pope Tawadros II has criticized the government restrictions since they have led to the construction of churches which are too small to fulfill the needs of Christian communities (New York Times, 16 August 2022), he emphasized his belief that the series of fire outbreaks were a coincidence. His point is, that if Christians had been given the opportunity to build appropriate church buildings, the Giza church disaster would probably have been prevented.

Michael Bosch adds: “On a positive note, in March 2022, President al-Sisi publicly declared that a church is to be built in every new city (Fides, 7 March 2022). However, this could potentially lead to a situation where brand new churches stand empty in development areas where few Christians reside, whereas elsewhere many Christians remain without any proper church building in which to worship. It is hoped that the current public discussion will encourage President al-Sisi to take more meaningful steps in improving the situation for Egypt’s Christians nationwide.”