The site of a new church to be dedicated to the 21 men beheaded in Libya by Islamic State terrorists was attacked after a ceremony for the laying of its foundation stone.
The Egyptian President, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, had personally given permission for the construction of the church in the village of Al Our in Minya Governorate, the home of 13 of the 20 Coptic Christians beheaded by the jihadists in February. The twenty-first victim came from Ghana.
Senior military and legal figures attended the ceremony at the site on 1 April, along with Muslim and Christian representatives. The ceremony took place after conciliation meetings between the governor of Minya, Salah Ziada, and influential local Christian and Muslim families.
However such measures were not enough to end demonstrations by local Islamist groups. A group of young protestors went to the village’s existing church after midday prayers on Friday and chanted that they would not allow construction to begin. After nightfall a small group of individuals who witnesses said were connected to the Muslim Brotherhood reportedly threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the church, injuring several people, and setting cars ablaze, including one that belonged to a relative of one of the 21 victims.
“The police came, but after the attack,” said Mina Abdelmalak, a Copt living in Washington DC who was in contact with the witnesses to the events in Al Our. He told Fox News: “There were already cars on fire. People had been bloodied. Stones and bricks had been thrown.”
Some protesters threw stones at the family home of massacre victim Samuel Alham Wilson, but were chased off by Muslim neighbours.
A Coptic news page on Facebook, which showed photos of men with facial injuries it says were sustained during the attack, expressed concern that the security services would recommend that the church should not be built because of fears of further violence. Local Christian and Muslim leaders are together discussing whether the church should be moved to outside the village.
Meanwhile in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, Islamists opened fire on worshippers leaving an Easter Day evening service, wounding one police officer and three civilians before fleeing, security sources said. Assailants shot at the Church of the Angel Rafael from a minibus before fleeing, Reuters reported. The men have not been caught.
Icon depicting the martyrs: Tony Rezk
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