This situation raises many questions about the Egyptian state's submission to the Salafist movement, at a time when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi calls for the renewal of religious discourse and leading a religious revolution.
Perhaps the most similar incident was the church in the village of Marinab in Edfo, Aswan, where militants in the village gathered on Friday, September 30, 2011, in front of the church after mosques' sheikhs there alleged that Christians had turned a church building to a place for prayer without a permit.
Although all the village's buildings are built without permissions, they attacked and destroyed the church building, burnt Coptic houses and looted property.
Security forces could not control the situation and the mob prevented fire fighters from entering the village. Militants broke into the priest's office, threw its contents in the street and burned them.
In 2012, specifically in October, Father Sharobim, priest of Ezbet Marco church in Fashn, called for a presidential decree that gives the right to Christians in the village and the neighboring villages to pray in the village's church and in other churches in different villages, because a group of militants in Ezbet Marco and in some adjacent villages prevented Christians from leaving the church after their prayer on Sunday. Militants attacked Christians inside the church and Christians in some houses of the village with stones and knives, which caused the injury of 5 persons, including a girl.
In August 2014, Fr. Beeman Shaker, pastor of St. George in Shubra Al-Khaimah, called on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to quickly intervene to allow the construction of a services building after the issuance of licenses four years ago.
In December 2014, militants attacked Copts in the village of Nag Rizk Shenouda in Sohag in the house where they were praying, because the village has no church.
On March 7, 2015, security forces stopped the construction of a building at the Coptic tombs in Dishna, Qena, after a number of neighbors filed a complaint accusing Copts of building a church in the tombs.
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