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| Africa: North |
| Arrests and curfew over Egyptian sectarian clashes |
| 2005-01-01 |
| Egyptian police have arrested 80 people and imposed a curfew in a town in upper Egypt following clashes between Muslims and Christians during which one Muslim youth died. A nighttime curfew was imposed in the town of Damshau Hashem in Minya province, 250 kilometres (156 miles) south of Cairo, after violence erupted because young Muslims suspected that Coptic Christians there wanted to demolish a home in the area and build a church in its place. The Muslims claimed the Christians were backtracking on a pledge last year not to proceed with the project and continue to use a church nearly two kilometres away. They argued that Christians did not need a church in the town, as there were only 500 of them compared to 20,000 Muslims. Police on Thursday said they had made several arrests after the two sides went at each other with rocks and sticks. Gunfire was also heard. The house of a young Copt was burnt down on Thursday after the Muslim man was killed a day earlier. Under a 19th century law introduced by Egypt's then Ottoman rulers, Christians can build churches only under certain conditions. These include there being a majority in the area and there being no mosque nearby. Christians complained that they had to go through layers of bureaucracy in order to obtain a permit to build a church, and that by the time they got one, demographic and other conditions would have changed. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |