MINYA/CAIRO: Sectarian clashes near a monastery in Minya Saturday resulted in the death of one Muslim and the injury of seven Coptic Christians, five of whom are monks.
Clashes erupted at 5 pm near the Abu Fana Monastery on the outskirts of Minya due to a wall being built around it, which neighbors claimed would harm their crops.
Khalil Mohammed Ibrahim was killed in the clashes and two novices from the monastery were taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Mallawi in critical condition. The monks were also taken to the hospital after sustaining injuries.
However, security services moved them to another hospital after Coptic Christians gathered around the hospital to protest the incident and threw rocks at the windows, damaging property in the surrounding area.
Hundreds of Copts protested also in front of the Orthodox Parish in Mallawi and clashed with security forces there.
A priest at the parish Mussa Girgis claimed that three of the five injured monks were kidnapped and tortured after the attack.
“The monks were tied to palm trees, blindfolded and whipped and one monk had his leg broken as a result, he said.
A monk from Abu Fana named Mina said that the monastery was attacked by at least 60 Muslims who were armed with guns and opened fire on the monastery.
The Abu Fana Monastery had received official approval for the wall it began building around neighboring property but Muslim residents protested the building of the wall in the surrounding agricultural land claiming it would damage the crops. They also claimed to own the land surrounding the monastery.
The Minya Governor Ahmed Diaa Eldin sought to downplay the incident in a television interview on the Egyptian satellite channel Dream.
“This was a fight between two neighbours and nothing else, he said.
Last year, a land dispute in another monastery in Minya saw 15 people wounded and 35 arrested in sectarian clashes.
Last Wednesday, four Coptic Christians were gunned down in a jewellery shop in the Cairo district of El-Zeitoun. The owner of the shop and his three assistants were killed.
The fact that nothing had been stolen from the shop has lent credence to the belief that it may have been a sectarian attack.
Minya has also been the site of sectarian tensions in recent weeks when two violent incidents took place in Minya University. Reports said that Coptic students had scrawled an X over Quranic verses and had drawn caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed.
The Abu Fana Monastery houses 30 monks and 10 novices. It was subjected to another attack last January during which one monk was wounded.h one monk was wounded.
