SECTARIAN TENSION SPARKS IN EGYPT

Cairo, EGYPT - A large crowd of angry Coptic Christians gathered in front of a church Wednesday in the Egyptian town of Bagur, following the murder of a Christian shopkeeper and the stabbings of two others, police said.

• The attacks took place in and around the Nile Delta town of Bagur, police told the German Press Agency dpa. Bagur is in Manufiya province, north-west of Cairo.
• "There is anger among the Christians because they feel their blood has been made cheap," Archbishop Stefanos, head of the Mar Girgis (St George) Coptic Church in al-Bagur, told dpa.
• He said that a man repeatedly stabbed local shopkeeper George Abdu, 63, in the abdomen and the neck, killing him, then fled on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
• The archbishop said that the killer drove 4 kilometres to the village of Bamahai and repeatedly stabbed a cobbler, who suffered wounds to the head and lung.
• The suspect then drove to another nearby village, Mit Afifi, and stabbed a third Christian man, Hani Barsum, in the neck. Barsum and the cobbler were hospitalized, Stefanos said.
• The archbishop said Abdu's funeral would take place Thursday at the church in Bagur.
• According to government figures, Christians make up approximately 10 per cent of Egypt's population, though many Christians say they believe the real figure is higher.
• Clashes between Christian and Muslim Egyptians are rare, but tensions sometimes erupt in disputes over women or land, particularly for religious buildings.
• Wednesday's attacks resembled a string of attacks in April 2006 in Alexandria that led to bloody street clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean city.
• In that incident, according to police accounts, a sole, "mentally deranged," Muslim man stabbed three parishioners in a church, then attacked worshippers at two other churches. One 78-year-old man died from his wounds.
• Two days of street clashes between Muslims and Christians erupted at his funeral, leaving one Muslim man dead, 40 Egyptians of both faiths wounded and dozens more arrested.

Source: Top News