Egyptian Christians receive right to paid pilgrimage leave

Egyptian Christians were granted a little more freedom and equality over the weekend as the country’s High Constitutional Court ruled that Christian civil servants should be entitled to paid leave to go on pilgrimage, just as Muslims receive to go on Hajj, reports Blagovest-info citing Christian Today.

Muslims have been allowed a one-time visit to Mecca and Medina since 1978. Judges ruled on Saturday that it is unconstitutional to exclude Christians from this right.

“The ruling is a major step towards full citizenship rights for Egyptian Christians,” said lawyer Naguib Gabriel, who has waged a three-year battle to win this decision.

The current Egyptian constitution, in effect since 2014, grants equal rights to all religions. However, in reality it is still a battle to enjoy those equal rights.

Over ten percent of Egypt’s 93 million-strong population is Christian, the majority of them being members of the Coptic Church. Egypt is also home to the ancient Alexandrian Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the successor throne to St. Mark the Apostle.

Despite this new freedom, members of the Coptic Church have been banned from visiting Jerusalem since 1980. Pope Shenouda proclaimed the ban at the time as a protest of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, although the denomination does not forcibly prevent its members from traveling to the Holy Land. With the current Patriarch Tawadros II, the ban was actually cancelled, and the number of Copts, travelling to Jerusalem, is constantly growing.