HELWAN, Egypt — Fewer than 40 days after a mob of Muslim villagers in Egypt left a church’s building in ruins, the congregation celebrated Easter on April 24 in a reconstructed building at the same site.
The reconstruction of the church building by the Egyptian military gave Christians in Egypt cause to celebrate, but it came during a new outbreak of sectarian violence across the country.
Balamoun Youakeem, head parish priest for the Church of the Two Martyrs St. George and St. Mina in the village of Sool, located in Helwan 22 miles south of Cairo, said the reconstruction was finished in “amazing time.”
Youakeem said the rebuilding was carried out over the objections of villagers. It was attacked the evening of March 4, after an imam told Muslim villagers to “kill all the Christians” in response to a rumor of an affair between a Muslim man and a Christian woman, both married to other people.
The rioters set fire to the church and demolished a large part of what was left by hand and with sledgehammers.
They then set up a sign declaring the site to be the “Rahmah Mosque” and held a prayer service inside the church ruins.
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