CAIRO — Egypt’s prosecutors on Tuesday referred a Christian schoolteacher to trial on charges of blasphemy, judicial sources said. Dimiana Abdel Nour, who was arrested on Wednesday, was accused by her Muslim students’ parents of blasphemy.Alongside the political and economic turmoil Egypt has endured since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February 2011, tensions have risen between Muslims and Christians, especially since the election of President Mohammed Mursi in June. Christians make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s 84 million people and have complained that the authorities have failed to protect them since Mubarak was ousted, giving radical Islamists a free hand.
Abdel Nour will appear in a court in Luxor next Tuesday, a judicial source said. She was free on bail of 20 thousand Egyptian pounds ($2,900) pending her trial.