[An Nahar] Hundreds of Christians demonstrated late Wednesday near a large Cairo slum, blocking a major highway and clashing with police following the shooting death of a Christian man the day before, said a security official.The demonstrators were protesting the treatment of Christians in the country in the wake of Tuesday's shooting and a New Year's Day suicide kaboom of a church in the port city of Alexandria, which killed 21 worshippers.
The bombing prompted three days of riots by Christians and now the recent shooting is threatening to set off a new round of demonstrations by the disaffected minority which makes up 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million.
The protesters pelted police with stones and blocked the highway running along the edge of Manshiyet Nasr, a slum of 1.2 million near the city's medieval cemeteries, that includes a population of Christians specialized in gathering and recycling the city's garbage.
| They would be the ones whose trash-eating pigs were slaughtered by the government during the swine flu panic last year, depriving them of their livelihood. |
There was no immediate word on civilian casualties, but police report the demonstrators eventually calmed down.
The demonstrations come after Wednesday's funeral in a northeast Cairo neighborhood for the 71-year-old victim of the train shooting. Hundreds of riot police surrounded the Cairo church where an emotional ceremony was held, according to the local media.
In Tuesday's attack, an off duty police officer boarded a train in southern Egypt and rubbed out one man and maimed five other Christians. The attacker was later apprehended.
It was not immediately clear whether the gunman knew his targets were Christians.
| Although reports had him looking for women without head coverings, then checking wrists for the green Coptic cross tattoo. On the other hand, it doesn't appear the off-duty policeman actually asked his targets if they'd been baptized, so in that sense he only suspected their faith. |
Shooting attacks against Christians occasionally take place in Egypt's impoverished south, usually over commercial disputes, church building or allegations of cross-sectarian relationships.
In January 2010, gunnies opened fire on worshippers leaving a Coptic Christmas Eve church service in southern Egypt, killing six Christians and a Mohammedan guard.
Many Christians charge that the authorities are not doing enough to protect them and in fact allege some members of the security services turn a blind eye to anti-Christian incidents.
The New Year's suicide kaboom on the church reopened long festering wounds in a Christian community that says its members feel like second class citizens in their own country due to widespread discrimination.