CAIRO // A mob of Muslims have ransacked and burnt seven Christian homes in a province south of the Egyptian capital after rumours spread that a Christian man had had an affair with a Muslim woman.
The Orthodox Coptic church said the mother of the Christian man was publicly stripped of her clothes by the mob to humiliate her during the May 20 attack. Her son fled the village.
Police arrived at the scene nearly two hours after the attacks began and arrested six people, Minya’s governate’sleading cleric, Bishop Anba Makarios, said on Wednesday night.
He said the family of the Christian man had notified the police of threats against them by Muslim villagers the day before the attack.
“No one did anything and the police took no pre-emptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks,” the bishop added.
Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s 90 million population, have long complained of discrimination in the mostly Muslim nation.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, in office since 2014, has sought to address some of their grievances, but Christians say they are systematically victimised.
Bishop Makarios also said on Wednesday that the late arrival of the police had given the attackers “ample time” to do what they had set out to do. With uncharacteristic candour, he said the crisis in the village would most likely be handled through a government-sponsored meeting of the two sides in which the Christians will be forced to accept “humiliating” conditions for reconciliation.
“It is a disgrace for honest men to remain silent while accepting, seeing or hearing this,” he said.
* Associated Press
