Egyptian Muslims kicking out Christian families

RADICAL Muslims are trying to forcibly empty a village near Alexandria of its Coptic Christian population, setting homes and shops on fire and threatening further violence, the Catholic Online said in a report posted on its website Sunday.

The Copts of Kobry-el-Sharbat (El-Amerya) were attacked on Jan. 27 by a crowd of some 3,000 Muslims led by Salafi leaders who set fire to the Copts houses and shops, the report said.

The violence allegedly stemmed from allegations of a Muslim barber that a Coptic tailor, Samy Mourad Guirgis, 34, had ‘illegal’ photos of a Muslim woman on his cell phone. Mourad has since turned himself in to police and reportedly denied the charges. The Muslims allegedly set fire to his house and his shop, and his whole family was forced to leave the village.

“Since then there have been three ‘reconciliation meetings’ in the police headquarters in El-Amerya, attended by representatives of the Coptic Church, the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood,” the report said. According to police, the woman concerned has denied the whole story, and no compromising photos of any kind were found in Mourad’s cell phone. But radical Muslims argue that “Muslim honor has been damaged,” and at the first meeting, they refused any type of compensation for the Copts who were innocent victims of their violence.

Report from Catholic Online