Ashraf Edward, a lawyer representing the Virgin Mary Church in the Ain Shams neighbourhood of Cairo, said the church's legal committee will present a request to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the interior minister and the cabinet that the church be reopened. The church is one of many that were closed down under the former regime, allegedly for security reasons.
Meanwhile the Egyptian Gazette (24 May 2010) reports that a Coptic bishop called on authorities to expedite procedures to issue a licence for a "controversial church" in Ain Shams.
"More than 2,000 Coptic families in Ain Shams are waiting for a licence for the church to hold their prayers after a pledge by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to open the closed churches," Bishop Marcos Berti of the Virgin and Bishop Abrahm Church said. "Claims of Muslims that the church was mainly a factory are nonsense," he said. "The owner of the factory bestowed it to Christians to build a church in 2008," added Berti.
