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Pay to pray?
It is still unclear when and if the announcement made by the Ministry of Culture that entry tickets will no longer be sold at 11 religious sites, including 10 historic mosques and the Hanging Church, will actually come into effect. At the historic Ibn Tulun mosque, pictured above, LE5 tickets were still being sold to tourists, even though the mosque, an extremely popular destination for tourists, is also undergoing major renovations. "The tourists cried when we told them it was closed for renovations," an official at the site told cairolive.com. "We had to re-open it."
The press reported that the revenue from tickets to mosques and churches bring in some LE1.5 million annually, but that figure is considered very low, according to most analysts. The issue arose as a result of controversial incidents at both mosques and churches relating to whether certain visitors should be considered worshippers (and thus shouldn't have to pay), or tourists (who should). Meanwhile, some religious authorities are adamant in urging that nobody should pay to enter a house of worship. The issue is sure to be discussed in extensive detail in the coming years, as the government goes forward in implementing its plan to turn the Islamic Cairo area, with its multitude of historic mosques, into a sort of open-air museum for tourists.
The above photos are from the Ibn Tulun mosque, currently undergoing restoration (photos Ahmad Fahim)
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