Local Muslims began persecuting the Christian community after a male Christian posted on social media.

Last week, a group of Muslims attacked a community of Copt Christians who live in a village in the province of Minia in Egypt. According to a local source, the situation in the village of Menbal is still hostile. This rural settlement is located 225 km from Cairo, and has a population of about forty-five thousand inhabitants, of which thirty per cent are Copt.

The attack took place after an online post of the Christian Abdo Adel where he compared Jesus Christ to an Arabian prophet called Muhammad.

The Muslims filed a complaint against him with the police; Adel was arrested for insulting Muhammad and for abusing the name of Islam. On the day he was arrested, a group of young Muslim men tried to attack his house but were stopped by the police. Adel was held in custody during the investigation.

The following days brought many attacks against the Copt families in the region.  “The Muslims dropped stones and bricks on the houses and shouted: Allah is greater,” said Girgis Shawky, who has lived in Menbal for 32 years. During the unrest, windows were broken and some of the Copts suffered minor injuries. The aggressors also tried to break into a church and into the house of a Christian leader.

The police couldn’t disperse the crowd and order was not restored until the arrival of the regional security forces. The houses of the Christians were surrounded and although security was provided during the night the police didn’t arrest the aggressors.

“In spite of the work of the village security, we still hear about attacks against Christians. The Muslims said they would seek vengeance on all of us unless the police gave them a free hand to carry out their plan. We are in a continuous fear”- said Hany Adly, another inhabitant of the village.

Adel is a simple man whose job is baking bread for Mass (which becomes the body of Christ at the consecration).  He is very popular within the Christian community, but he is not good at writing and reading and he cannot use social networks correctly, says another religious leader who is a relative of Adel.  That is why he and the village got themselves into this situation. The religious leader of the community asked forgiveness from the Muslims on his social network page.

We pray that the situation will stabilise soon.

Source: PortasAbertas

Translator: Ildikó Ungvári