SOHAG, Egypt — Enraged Muslims burned down several Christian-owned homes, surrounded a church building and threatened to kill a priest in June in two unrelated incidents in Upper Egypt.
On June 25 in Awlad Khalaf village, just outside Sohag, 240 miles south of Cairo, local Muslims attacked Coptic Christian Wahib Halim Atteyah, robbed him of $8,530 and bulldozed his home along with the other structures on his property, according to local media. The group then raided six other Coptic-owned homes and burned them to the ground.
Villagers had begun circulating a rumor that Atteyah was constructing a church building on his property. Atteyah and another Coptic Christian, Ihab Na’eem, were later arrested for allegedly repelling the attack with firearms, a charge Atteyah said was untrue. Two Muslims accused of setting houses on fire also have been arrested. In a previous incident June 23 in Beni-Ahmed al-Gharbiya village near the town of Minya, 136 miles south of Cairo, a group of Salafi Muslims surrounded the Church of St. George and demanded that the parish priest, Pastor Gorgy Thabet, leave the village or they would kill him and hold Muslim prayers in the church building.
Security police kept the mob from breaking into the church building and then removed the priest from the village. It was not known if there were any injuries in the incident.
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