The Abu Fana monastery saga continues , now it is not about the Arab tribes but it is the State itself. The monastery supported by the Church are standing against the State. The government offered a solution that would suit all parties . An investigation committee , of course you may have known earlier from this blog that the committee found out that the land on which both parties were fighting is actually owned by the State and both have no right in it.
The reaction of the Church was insisting of taking it , despite they do not need nor it was owned by the Church.
The investigation committee found out that monastery took 24 acres without any right from the State and now they are angry when the Governorate tells them to use the legal channel instead of force !!
The Church owns enough money I believe to buy any piece of land it wants.
According to the Egyptian law if you want to rent a land owned by the State ,you have to got the Agricultural development authority that follows the ministry of Agriculture to rent this land for 5 years , if you want to buy then you should head to the same place .
The Church always speaks about Citizenship and equity between citizens based on the law , then why they do not obey the law , why they do not think that they are above the law !!??
Six Egyptians and non-Egyptians (4 Christian, 2 Muslim) visited the area. We documented all interviews, made photos, a film and a map on www.arabwestreport.info. Egypt is overpopulated and the pressure on land and water is huge. The monastery wants to expand and so do villagers want this. These tensions need a solution but that is not obtained by pitting Muslims against Christians or the other way around. Do not inflame but please look for solutions.
ReplyDelete@anonymous, I never agree more , please put the conflict in its right context, a struggle because of land not because of religion , that happens on a daily basis I swear in Upper Egypt between Muslims and Muslims and Christians and Christians
ReplyDeleteDear Zeinobia,
ReplyDeleteDid you visit our website www.arabwestreport.com? There is a lot of material here about Abu Fana with opinions of all parties involved. The struggle is a struggle over land in which people have sadly entered the factor religion and by doing so made it very emotional and with this very hard to solve. I am one of the six people listed under anynomous ( I don't know why it is anonymous, it does not need to be so) who visited the area. I have been now four times in the area. My latest comment is on the website of Arab-West report and that is that we are dealing here with two major problems:
- poor land administration of the Egyptian government in new areas (north coast, Nile valley bordering the deserts, Sinai), allowing a mix of wada'i'yat (just grabbing land up to a maximum of 100 feddan per person), orfi contracts and proper government registration
- lack of transparancy from both government and church about what documents they posess and what not. We just have to believe what authorities (church or government) say? I want to see evidence and thus see documents supporting or opposing certain claims and not just hear a lot of talk
@Kees Hulsman , I have visited the website and its coverage is great , unbiased
ReplyDeleteI agree with you the conflict in the end is the result of the poor administration of the government not only in the new areas but also in the old areas , there is no state power anymore
The transparency unfortunately is something we miss in Egypt
The government in this particular problem was the right one , the land was not the church´s nor the Arabs´but where are these documents and where was it all those years ??
The Church is becoming a state inside a state I am afraid and this does not help anyone , it makes things worse , as you referred Religion factor entered and I am afraid the church was responsible for this , since day all Egyptians inside Egypt know that it is a common land dispute in Upper Egypt , a regular thing there just like the Sunset , it became ugly yes it did ,also this is something regular a whole family can be killed because of these dispute still the Church portrayed it as religious repression and that made the State in Egypt extremely angry
If the church wants a civil state that does not discriminate between one and another based on religion then they must respect the laws