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Hundreds of Muslims said to attack Coptic church in Egypt
[IsraelTimes] Diocese says unlicensed house of worship near Cairo stormed, contents destroyed, worshippers assaulted; three maimed

Hundreds of Moslem demonstrators attacked an unlicensed church south of Cairo wounding three people, an Egyptian Coptic Christian diocese said on Saturday, in the latest assault on members of the country’s Christian minority.

The incident took place after Friday prayers when dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the building and stormed it. The demonstrators chanted hostile slogans and called for the church’s demolition, the diocese in Atfih said. The demonstrators destroyed the church’s contents and assaulted Christians inside before security personnel arrived and dispersed them.

The maimed were transferred to a nearby hospital, the diocese said after the attack, without elaborating.

A media coordinator at the diocese, the Rev. Yehnes Youssef, said later on Saturday that three Copts were maimed but have been treated.

The church in Giza just outside of Cairo is yet to be sanctioned by the state but has been holding prayers for 15 years. The diocese said it had officially sought to legalize the building’s status under a 2016 law that laid down the rules for building churches.

Local authorities often refuse to issue building permits for new churches, fearing protests by hardline Moslems. Christians sometimes build churches illegally or set up churches in other buildings.
Posted by: trailing wife 2017-12-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=504320