Over 1,000 Coptic Christians clashed with police in southern Egypt on Thursday, after assailants in a car opened fire on churchgoers after they exited Midnight Mass, killing seven people and wounding nine.
The clashes occurred as mourners received the bodies of the dead from the hospital, and after burial services. Protesters in Nag Hamadi, about 40 miles north of the ancient ruins of Luxor, attacked a police station with rocks, smashed shop windows and tore down light poles, according to a security official. A curfew was imposed at nightfall into Friday morning.
Some Copts — a group that makes up about 10% of Egypt##s majority Muslim population of 78 million — claim that Egyptian police have sided with Muslims in recent tensions between the two groups.
The latest strife in Nag Hamadi stems from the alleged rape of a 12-year-old Muslim girl by a Coptic man late last year. Some Christian businesses and cars were attacked afterward, said the Rev. Lucca Helal, a priest at Mary Hannah Church, the site of shooting. The suspect is in custody, awaiting trial.
The bishop of the Nag Hamadi Diocese cut short the Mass, for Coptic Christmas, because of threats of an attack, Father Helal said.
After the service, three men in a car opened fire on departing churchgoers using automatic weapons, the security official said. The men had earlier fired shots randomly in a commercial area of a main street, without killing anyone. None of the three was apprehended.
The fatalities outside the church included six Coptic Christians and a Muslim church guard. Father Helal called the incident “a terrorist attack at a sensitive time.”
On Thursday, tensions rose as authorities delayed the release of the bodies for funeral services. Rioters smashed ambulances outside the hospital, and protests continued through the day. Police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas.
Fawzi Zafzaf, former president of the interfaith dialogue committee at Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Islamic authority, said the attack Wednesday wasn##t motivated by religious differences.
“The concept of revenge is strong in southern Egypt and it can happen between any two families,” he said.
The attack was Egypt##s worst incident of sectarian violence since 2000, when Christian-Muslim clashes left 23 people dead.
_____________________
The Wall Street Journal