CAIRO: Seven people were injured in Cairo on Thursday when residents clashed with thousands of Christians marching through the capital to demand an end to what they see as discrimination by the state.
The Coptic Christians were marching from Cairo’s northern Shoubra suburb towards the Tahrir Square in the city center.
"But the locals in the neighborhood of Bulak attacked the group on their way to the square and threw stones at them," a security source said. "Until now we have seven people injured and the clashes are still going on," he added.
Egypt has suffered a series of bloody sectarian clashes in which more than 40 people have been killed and thousands injured since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February in a popular uprising.
Christians have long complained of barriers to the construction of churches, court verdicts that favor Muslims and what they see as the growing influence of Islamists who were suppressed during Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million people.
