Mohamed Salah donates $157,000 to rebuild Abu Sifin Coptic Church

Egyptian football star Mohamed Salah has donated three million Egyptian pounds ($157,000) to rebuild and restore the church in Giza that burnt down over the weekend in a deadly fire.

During Sunday mass a fire blazed through Abu Sifin Coptic Church killing 41 people including 18 children and wounding 45.

As the flames and smoke blocked the only entrance into and out of the church, many worshippers and kids died during the stampede to get out.

In one photo shared widely online, a mother and her three kids, her sister and their mother became three generations of one family who died in the deadly fire.

The issue of rebuilding the church has become heated because for years Egyptian authorities have ignored calls to rebuild other churches in the country.

In March, security forces arrested nine Copts after they protested the authorities’ refusal to rebuild their church that had burned down five years ago in El-Minya governorate.

READ: Egypt: 3 generations of one family die in deadly church fire

Amnesty International called on authorities to release the prisoners and afford them the right to collectively practice their religion.

Amnesty has also said that the law on Building and Repairing Churches is often used to restrict Christians from building and repairing churches with less than 40 per cent of requests to build or repair churches since it came into effect, granted.

Mohamed Salah is known for his charitable donations, including giving 12 million Egyptian pounds ($627,000) to a local hospital in Egypt in March 2018 so they could purchase a bone marrow transplant machine.

In 2021 Salah donated oxygen and an ambulance to his home village in Gharbia to help in the fight against coronavirus.

The Liverpool striker has also donated to the National Cancer Institute in Cairo after it was destroyed by a car bomb, provided grants to help more black people attend Cambridge University and given away five acres of land for a waste treatment plant to provide residents with clean water.

In June this year Salah was ranked the eighth most generous person in the UK after donating six per cent of his wealth over three years, the state-run Egypt Independent reported.