Monday, February 20, 2012

Egypt: Salafists Riot and Attack Coptic Church

Edit: if someone in the government told you that they "couldn't guarantee your safety" as the Egyptian Parliament told a Coptic family near Alexandria, it sure would look like a threat.  Considering he heavy handed treatment of Copts in Egypt before and since the Arab Spring, it looks like this treatment will continue.

Riot in the village of Meet Bashar, northeast of Cairo is inflamed in a conflict over conversion. 

Cairo (kath.net/KAP)  2,000 Salafists have attached the Coptic Church of the Egyptian Village of Meet BAshar and burned down the rectory.  Also the residences and autos of Coptic Christians from the village, some 50 km northeasterly of Cairo were destroyed.  The peace was only brought back with a massive police presence;  otherwise the functionarites from the inspirational Party "Justice and Freedom" came to the village and persuaded the Salafists that it ould be better if they disappear from Meet Bashar.

The Salafist riots began on Sunday, 12 February.  The cause -- as so often in similar cases -- a conflict surrounding conversion.  In Meet Bashar it involved 14 year old Rania Khalil.  Her Coptic father was converted some days earlier to Mohamedism.  On the 12th of February, the girl disappeared.  Salfaisten have come to insist that the Christians had abducted the girl from the village, in order to prevent her conversion to Mohamedism.  Rania Khalil has been discovered in the mean time and is presently being questioned by the authorities.

Link to original kath.net...

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