CAIRO: A criminal court in Alexandria sentenced a young man to three years in jail on Sunday for stabbing a nun, the official MENA news agency reported. The court also found Mohammed Al-Said Ahmed, 19, guilty of wounding a lawyer after he tried to help the nun, carrying a knife illegally and resisting the authorities, the agency added. Ahmed attacked the nun, lightly wounding her, when a dispute in October over the DVD release of a Christian play deemed anti-Islamic turned violent. He fled the scene, but was later arrested. Islamist groups mounted at least two protests outside the Saint Girgis church protesting the release of the play the church had produced for the stage two years earlier. Performed by amateur actors, the play tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam only to be exhorted by a sheikh to kill priests and destroy churches, the independent Al-Dustur paper reported at the time. Performances of the play had to be abandoned after it sparked a public outcry. Church authorities distanced themselves from the new DVD recording of the play. There have been a series of outbursts of sectarian violence in Egypt in recent months. AFP
Egyptian man gets three years for stabbing nun
