Release International

Several Coptic Christian communities were badly damaged when a mob looted and burned Christian property in three days of rioting in Upper Egypt.

Thousands of rioters went on the rampage in Farshoot town and the nearby villages of Kom Ahmar, Shakiki, Ezbet Waziri and Abou Shousha between November 21 and 23. The riots were apparently triggered by reports that a man from the Coptic community had sexually abused a young Muslim girl. Local Christian leaders, however, believe the raid was pre-planned, reports the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA).

The mob looted, vandalised and burned 'more than 80 per cent of Coptic businesses', according to AINA. Nearly 3,000 rioters reportedly surrounded the police station where the Christian accused of abusing the young girl was being held, calling for him to be killed. Unconfirmed reports suggest that seven Coptic women may have been abducted. The precise number of people injured is unknown, though one Coptic church leader Benjamin Noshi was reportedly hospitalised with a fractured skull.

'We have never been so frightened,' one witness told AINA. 'The mob made wooden crosses and burnt them in the street. Our religion and our Lord were openly insulted.'

Coptic Orthodox Bishop Kyrillos of Nag Hammadi Diocese ordered all church services to be cancelled on November 22, for fear of further violence. Egypt's minority Coptic Christians are widely discriminated against and treated as second-class citizens.

(Source: Assyrian International News Agency)

• Pray that Coptic Christians in and around Farshoot will know God as their refuge.
• Pray that politicians and security forces alike will do more to protect Egypt's Copts.

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