The remains of a basilica and buildings dating to the fourth century AD has been discovered at the Ain al-Sabil area of the New Valley Governorate. This is the first excavation at the site and researchers hope more discoveries will be made.

Egyptian Christians (Copts) trace their history back to just after the Crucifixion, when Saint Mark preached in the country. The fourth century AD was a high point in Coptic history. The majority of Egyptians were Christian at that time and Egyptian monasteries started the Christian monastic movement.

Today’s Copts make up anywhere from 5-23% of the population. Estimates vary so widely because the actual number is a politically contentious issue. Most sources agree that about 10% is the correct figure, meaning slightly more than 8 million people.

Gadling

Hotels and touristic outlets in Egypt have long celebrated Christmas for tourism-related reasons. However, over the past few years, the holiday has been visibly gaining ground throughout various strata of Egyptian society.

Around 10 December, the Christmas buzz starts to hit with displays popping up in almost every major Cairo mall. Banners with “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” adorn different store and restaurant fronts, and it becomes all too evident that the consumer fever that hits many other parts of the world has caught on here this year too.

Some reports say that around 500,000 Christmas trees will have been sold this year in Egypt by 25 December–a large number considering how many Egyptians observe Christmas as part of their religion.

The Coptic Catholic Church, which celebrates 25 December, has around 200,000 adherents only. Over 95% of Egypt’s large and observant Christian population are Orthodox Coptic, and celebrate Christmas on 7 January. An Orthodox Coptic Christmas is also distinctly void of reindeer, evergreen trees, and carols about Santa coming down Cairene chimneys.

Christmas in Egypt has departed from its roots as a celebration of the birth of Christ and taken on a more social role, with many Muslims and Christians–especially in the more affluent communities–celebrating it without really observing it.

Many consumer and touristic outlets, however, use the season in any way possible to incite consumerism.

Al Masry Al Youm

A group of Egyptian citizens have filed a complaint to the office of the attorney-general demanding the cancelation of a preacher’s television program after he issued a fatwa (a religious edict) on the sale of antiquities.

Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, a prominent preacher, currently presents a program which is aired live, features inquiries via phone calls and he answers them on the spot.

In response to a telephone call regarding Islam’s position on selling antiquities, Hassan said, “If it is found on land that you own, or in your house, then it is yours by right and you are not doing anything wrong.” As for antiquities which are found on a public land, Hassan explained, a Muslim is prohibited from selling them, advising that he should re-bury them.

The people who filed the complaint argue that this fatwa means that all antiquities discovered on private land are the possessions of the owner of that land, and that he has the right to sell and profit from them. This contradicts the law, which punishes any private circulation of antiquities.

They argue that the fatwa poses a serious threat to Egyptian history and its national heritage.

Al Masry Al Youm

The Egyptian government has decided to scrap all content in the secondary school curriculum relating to sex education, reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases.

Biology students in the 16-17 age range will no longer study anything pertaining to reproductive health. Students aged 13-14 will see their science book lightened by a few pages with the removal of those containing drawings of male and female genitalia, as well as the entire lesson on sexually transmitted diseases. And the science book for 12-13-year-olds will skip the description of testicles and ovaries in its lesson on glands.

Instead, according to the education ministry, there will be “activities in which the teacher will lead a class discussion on the subject”.

Excerpted from an article by Mohamed El Dahshan for  guardian.co.uk

During Ramadan, Muslims who are fit and able are required to abstain from food, drink and smoking during daylight hours. They then traditionally gather to break the fast at sunset with their families for the iftar meal.

For many Muslims, Ramadan is therefore not a time to book holidays abroad, but a time when most socializing takes place in the home.

Against this tradition, Egypt is trying to attract Arab tourists to the banks of the Nile during the holy month with the “Fawanees Ramadan Festival.” The festival will kick off in the capital Cairo with a parade of traditional sailing boats or “felucca” down the Nile.

The campaign, organized by the tourism ministry, seeks to promote the Egyptian Ramadan experience in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Libya and Tunisia. Non-Arab Turkey, with its majority-Muslim population, is also being targeted by the campaign which is backed by heavy advertising.

Egyptair’s fleet of aircraft and Cairo international airport are also taking part and have been especially decorated for the occasion, while several luxury hotels favoured by Arab wealthy tourists are offering special Ramadan packages.

Advertising spots have been aired on Egyptian and Arab satellite channels under the slogan “Egypt’s Spirit in Ramadan.”

The campaign is of vital importance to Cairo’s coffers. Arab tourists, particularly those from the Gulf, make up almost 20 percent of the 12 million visitors who come to Egypt annually.

AFP

For more than 13 decades, the call to prayer has begun five times a day via microphones attached to Egypt’s mosques. Many of muezzins (the person who recites the azan or calls to prayer) have imperfect voices thus creating a citywide cacophony while reciting the azan. Although each of the five prayers has a certain time at which the call to prayer should start, the calls are not usually synchronised. All this will soon come to an end after Minister of Endowment Hamdi Zaqzouq’s decision to unify the azan and end the general state of dissonance.

Zaqzouq declared few weeks ago that the call to prayer in Cairo’s 4,500 mosques would be unified by the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, which will start on 11 August. Alexandria will be the first to apply the new system after Cairo, along with other governorates that will work with the new system soon after its success is proven.

Once the unified call is introduced, the city is likely to have one person to recite the five daily calls to prayer, have it recorded, and then amplified simultaneously by all mosques. The standard call will now be transmitted from the Greater Cairo radio station, connecting to receivers in mosques at the same time.

The project, whose cost is LE680,000, will only be applied to government-owned mosques in the Greater Cairo area. There are 70,000 official muezzins working at the Ministry of Endowments.

Excerpted from an article by Reem Leila for Al-Ahram

Egypt’s highest judiciary body on Wednesday overturned a ruling ordering the Coptic church to allow its faithful to remarry, the official MENA news agency said, in a move welcomed by the church.

The Supreme Constitutional Court overturned a May decision by the High Administrative Court that obliged the head of the church, Pope Shenuda III, to issue a second marriage permit to divorced Copts requesting one.

That ruling sparked demonstrations in Cairo, with angry protesters, saying it went against the Bible, charging state interference in religious affairs.

Copts forbid divorce except in proven cases of adultery, or if a spouse converts to another religion or branch of Christianity.

Civil marriage alone is not recognized in Egypt.

Google News

A court in Egypt has ordered the Coptic church to allow its faithful to remarry, quashing an appeal by the head of the church.

“By law, a Christian can remarry and the constitution guarantees his rights to have a (new) family. The appeal by Pope Shenuda III to prevent Copts from remarrying is rejected,” Egypt’s High Administrative Court said in its judgement, which can not be appealed.

Divorce is forbidden by the Coptic church except in proven cases of adultery, or if a spouse converts to another religion or branch of Christianity.

Civil marriage alone, without a religious ceremony, is not recognized in Egypt.

AFP

The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church will not abide to a recent Higher Administrative Court ruling allowing Copts the right to remarry: “We respect the Egyptian judiciary, but no force on earth can make the Church violate teachings of the Holy Bible in order to execute a judicial verdict,” Father Armia, Pope Shenouda III’s secretary, said this week.

The Administrative Court’s verdicts are final and cannot be appealed.

In the last few years many, Copts have converted to Islam in order to get divorced. Most of them end up recanting and rejoining to their original Christian religion after their divorce procedures were secured.

Babylon and Beyond

Arabian Nights, the classic collection of folk tales of magic lanterns and flying carpets also known as One Thousand And One Nights, has been deemed obscene by a group of Islamist lawyers.

The literary classic features characters such as Scheherazade, Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, known to children worldwide.

The group asked for the book to be banned after a recent republication. The lawyers read the tales as a call to “vice and sin” and object to its publication on the basis of depiction of sexuality and use of offensive language, according to Al Arabiya.

The GOCP Supreme Publication Committee, which decided to print another edition after the first one was sold out, said in a statement that Arabian Nights was an invaluable cultural heritage that could not be confiscated.

A Writers’ Union spokesman said the lawyers were behaving “like the Taliban”.

Source: Telegraph

Egypt’s musician’s union Sunday rejected plans for British singer Elton John to perform a private concert scheduled for May 18, because of his “controversial remarks attacking religions”.

The pop superstar, 63, stirred controversy after his remarks to US celebrity news magazine Parade in February, where he said “Try being a gay woman in the Middle East – you’re as good as dead”, after saying he believed Jesus was “gay”.

In 2008, Elton John performed in the United Arab Emirates to a crowd of more than 13,000 fans.

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