Muslim mob attacks, burns down church in Egypt

CAIRO, Egypt — A Muslim mob in a village south of Cairo attacked a church building and burned it down, almost killing the parish priest after an imam issued a call to “kill all the Christians,” according to local sources. The attack started March 4 in the village of Sool, in Helwan city 22 miles from Cairo, and lasted through most of March 5. A local imam, Sheik Ahmed Abu Al-Dahab, issued the call to area Muslims to kill the Christians.

Pastor Hoshea Abd Al-Missieh, a parish priest who narrowly escaped death in the fire, said the clamor of the Church of the Two Martyrs St. George and St. Mina being torn apart sounded like “hatred.” After demolishing it, the group of Muslims then held prayers at the site and began collecting money to build a mosque where the church building once stood, said the assistant bishop of Giza, Pastor Balamoun Youaqeem. The attack was another in a long list of disproportionate responses in Egypt to a rumor of an affair between a Muslim and a Copt. Earlier in March, Sool villagers accused a Muslim woman and a Coptic man, both of them married, of being involved with each other. Because of the attack, Copts in Sool fled to adjacent villages. The women who remained in the village are now being sexually assaulted, according to Youaqeem, who added that he is receiving phone calls from area women begging for help.

On March 6, roughly 2,000 people gathered outside the radio and television building in Cairo to protest the attack and what Copts see as a long-standing government refusal to address or even acknowledge the persecution of Christians in Egypt.