What does one get for wanting to build a Christian prayer room in Egypt? A death fatwa! At least that’s what happened to Father Estefanos Shehata when he decided to build a room in his house where he could perform various Christian ceremonies, rather than out on the street, which is what he has been doing up until now. Since Christians need President Hosny Mubarak’s approval to build a church anywhere in Egypt, the prayer room seemed a good alternative. After 2 years of renovating the room, he applied for the appropriate licenses from the state security, but was told he needed permission from the Muslim elders in his village.

“I went to the state security to get the necessary liscences for using this space in my family home, but they told me I need first to obtain the ‘permission’ of the village Muslims, as they (state security) want no problems in the village,” said Father Estefanos “I told them that there would be no problems in getting this permission as we have always had good relations with the village Muslims and we love and consider them as our brothers.”

Father Estefanos was raised in the village of Ezbet Dawood Youssef, so he assumed there would be no problems. Instead, the village elders gathered elders from other villages and rather than approve the prayer hall, they issued a death Fatwa.

“They were extremely angry at my proposal and instead a death Fatwa was issued against me! . They told the Copts in the village to make me change my mind, and that it only takes a bullet to get rid of me since there is no ‘blood money’ for killing a Christian”, Father Estephanos said.”I am banned from entering my village for over a month now, I cannot even go to see my mother.”

There are approximately 12 million Coptic Christians in Egypt, (about 15% of the population). And although there are Christian churches that exist in that country (since Christianity predates Islam in that land), it is well-nigh impossible to build a Church there now, or in any Muslim dominated country, for that matter. Which begs the question, why should Christian dominated lands allow Muslims to build mosques, if Christians are not allowed to build churches in Muslim dominated lands?

And a death Fatwa for the right to build a prayer room where one can perform religious rites with dignity? Western countries go out of their way to accommodate Muslims’ demands for prayer rooms etc., it’s high time Muslim countries reciprocate!