CAIRO, Egypt — Hundreds of Muslims, angered by the prospect of a government-closed church reopening in their neighborhood, protested outside the church May 19, causing the provisional military authority to back away from its promise to allow Orthodox clergy to reopen it. Protestors started gathering the afternoon of May 19 outside the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam in Ain Shams, a poor section of northeastern Cairo.
The church was scheduled to reopen that day, but protestors surrounded the building, preventing anyone from getting into it and trapping priests who were inside. Several people were injured in fights between the Copts and the Muslims. Protestors threw rocks at each other, according to a witness. One Coptic bystander was seriously injured, another witness said, when he took out a cell phone camera to record the protest and a group of Muslims surrounded and beat him.
Several Copts were arrested, according to church officials. Peter Rizq, a lay minister at the church, said he, the priests and others trapped in the building found a way to sneak to safety after Muslims threatened to kill the head priest of the congregation. “[The priest] told us, ‘We need to go home now,’” Rizq said. “He told us we couldn’t stay any longer in the church because it would cause more problems.” The men left the church building one by one, but some of them were later arrested and charged with illegal possession of weapons, a charge Rizq said was untrue.
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