Hundreds of Islamists in the village of Fanous in Fayoum, some 100km southwest Cairo, this afternoon attacked a building that is yet under construction and that is owned by a Coptic society affiliated to the local Mar-Girgis (St George) church. A rumour had been circulated in the village that the building was a church
Hundreds of Islamists in the village of Fanous in Fayoum, some 100km southwest Cairo, this afternoon attacked a building that is yet under construction and that is owned by a Coptic society affiliated to the local Mar-Girgis (St George) church. A rumour had been circulated in the village that the building was a church.
According to the Coptic villagers, the building was erected on a 100sq.m plot of land donated to the Church by a Coptic villager. Construction began two months ago once all the official approvals were secured. The first floor was erected and the columns for the second floor, when calls for ++jihad++ were shouted through the microphones of the local mosque for Muslims to defend Islam against the Christians who were building a church. More than 5000 Muslims from Fanous and neighbouring villages, more mobbed the building and pulled it down to the ground, to cheers by bystanders and ululations by the village women. Some attackers had come carrying old electricity poles, while the others had climbed up the building with hammers and axes. The Copts who lived close by did not dare interfere.
The police did not arrive till everything was over. Fathers Ermiya and Raphael of St George’s filed a report with the prosecution.
Fanous is home to more than 60 families. The community centre would have served them as well as the Copts in neighbouring villages who have no church or services within a 15km circle.
Watani International
14 January 2013
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