Sectarian violence erupted Thursday evening in the village of Baheeg in Manqabad, Assiut, in Upper Egypt, following a rumour that a teenage boy had uploaded offensive pictures of the Prophet Mohamed on his Facebook page
Sectarian violence erupted Thursday evening in the village of Baheeg in Manqabad, Assiut, in Upper Egypt, following a rumour that a teenage boy had uploaded offensive pictures of the Prophet Mohamed on his Facebook page.
The pupils of the village preparatory school attempted to attack and hold a Christian pupil, Gamal Massoud, who was the owner of the allegedly offensive Facebook account. The police set the boy free and a conciliatory session was organised by some village members to keep matters under control. Meanwhile, however, some Muslims took matters into their own hands and set fire to five houses belonging to Coptic villagers, and shot at a few Copts before the police and the military intervened and controlled the situation.
The fires resulted in the total destruction of two houses and in partial damage to the other three.
On Friday, following the Muslim Friday prayers, violence again erupted against Copts, this time simultaneously in Baheeg and in the neighbouring villages of al-Udr and Salam. The police and military attempted to contain the situation but the Muslim villagers went on with their rampage against Copts and their homes and property. Finally, upon the intervention of the village elders and sheikhs and their promise to the villagers that the lad who caused all this trouble and his family would be banished from the village, peace reigned.
The Friday damages amounted two houses burnt.
Later in the day, after several hours of calm, during which Gamal Masoud and his family were kicked out of their home and village, attacks were resumed against the Copts in the three villages, and went on till the early hours of the morning. The Copts watched in terror and panic as their homes and shops were looted and set ablaze. The police and the military found it hard to bring matters under control in view of the huge, thundering mob.
Saturday morning a conciliation session was held at the Assiut governorate offices, and was attended by Assiut governor and head of security, the elders of Manqabad and the three villages, as well as by local sheikhs and representatives of the Church. It must be noted that Manqabad is the site of the school Massoud is enrolled in, Baheeg is his home village, al-Udr is the village where is father was living and working, and Salam is the home of Massoud’s mother and the family of a friend of his who was accused of being an accomplice in the crime.
It was decided that the Church should officially apologise for the incident which involved ridiculing the Prophet Mohamed, Massoud should be put on trial for ridiculing Islam, he and his family should be banished from Assiut governorate, his colleague should be caught and brought to justice, the losses and damages should be determined and reported to the prosecutor, and that Muslim and Coptic clerics should conduct meetings between young men of both religions to attempt to find out about the truth and pacify matters.