Marchers numbering about 400 took to the streets Sunday in a call for national unity after clashes between Christians and Muslims in the northwestern neighborhood of Imbaba left 12 people dead and 232 injured. Among those killed were four Christians and six Muslims, while two other bodies were still unidentified.
When the Muslim and Christian peace advocates gathered in front of Cairo’s High Court ahead of a march in the center of the city, they were pelted with stones by dozens of men from a nearby neighborhood.
The two groups clashed, throwing stones and rocks at each other before dispersing. The protesters regrouped outside the television building, where their numbers began to swell.
Saturday’s violence broke out after Muslims attacked the Coptic Saint Mena church in Imbaba to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam.
The protesters accused the army of collaborating with crowds of conservatives during the attack on the church. A residential building home to Christians was also burned in the overnight violence.
A power cut plunged the neighborhood into darkness, making it harder for the security forces to quell the violence.
Another church nearby, Saint Mary’s, was set on fire and badly damaged. One witness said the fire at Saint Mary’s was started by thugs and that the hard-liners had tried to stop them. Confused accounts of who stoked the violence and began the shooting led to heated arguments in the working class neighborhood’s narrow streets on Sunday.
Military rulers warned Sunday they would use an “iron hand” to protect national security.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf canceled a tour of Bahrain and the UAE to chair a Cabinet meeting where the government decided to deploy more security near religious sites and toughen laws criminalizing attacks on places of worship.
The statement came at the end of nearly four hours of Cabinet talks and after Egypt’s military rulers had said 190 people detained in connection with the clashes would face military trial.
In Imbaba — an overcrowded maze of residential buildings and shops — Muslim and Christian residents pleaded with the visiting Interior Minister, Mansur Essawy, to boost security on the streets, the official MENA news agency said.
Victims’ families would be paid 5,000 Egyptian pounds (about $840) in compensation, and the injured would receive 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($336), said Ali Abdelrahman, the governor of Giza where Imbaba lies.
Egypt’s mufti Ali Gomaa condemned the clashes and said they “were toying with Egypt’s national security.”
