Egypt's Land Grab Threatens the World's Oldest Christian Monastery

In the sixth century, Christian monks built St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The monastery is believed to be located at the very place where God appeared to Moses via a burning bush. Valuable Christian relics are stored at St. Catherine's, among them parts of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.

Since its inception, the monastery has never been destroyed, but recent efforts by the Egyptian government could effectively end St. Catherine's independence and inhibit the religious freedom of its monks.

In May, a legal ruling by an Egyptian appeals court "affirmed government ownership of land beneath the centuries-old Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai," although the government stressed that it would not interfere with the m