Christians Under Attack

Witnesses said - in telephone talks with Reuters - that the demonstrators gathered on the evening of Thursday before St.Mary and St. George Church in the village Dyfsh district, which lies about 200 kilometers from Cairo, after news of the death of Milad Farah Ibrahim -22 years - further chanted slogans hostile to their Muslim neighbors and demanded retribution from the killer, and they continued to pretend to be dispersed by police using tear gas Friday morning.
Relatives of the dead says that the Muslim neighbor Khamis Eid Abdel Hamid -25 years - lured to the uninhabited area ,west of the village, and hit him, stabbed in the neck and abdomen and escaped. He said that a relative of the dead young Christian named Emad was incidentally near him before his last breath, and he told him the name of the accused.
The security sources said that police had arrested Abdul-Hamid, and the Public Prosecutor achieved with him, while eyewitnesses said that young Christians today, Friday, tried to prevent the burial of the body of Ibrahim before retribution for his murder; But police forces forced them to bury the corpse. They added that clashes between young Muslims and Christian youths after the funeral, but Riot police dispersed the crowd.
The residents of the village turned into something resembling a military barracks after clashes between young Muslims and young Christians, and anti-riot forces were deployed to prevent the population from leaving their homes.

A security source said that a criminal incident in the village Dyfsh has nothing to do with sectarian incident occurred in the town of Deir Abu Fana in Mallawi, which lies about 125 kilometres from the village of Dyfsh. He added: “It seems that a dispute over a plot of land is the reason for the accident Dyfsh.”
The clash took place last Saturday between gunmen and Muslims from the village of “Arab Kzarethor” Christians and workers in Deir Abu Fana to a disagreement over a piece of land; resulting in the killing of a Muslim dead and injuring five monks and two students Monasticism and burning some buildings and crops in the monastery.

The authorities had arrested after the incident 11 Muslims and two Christians.

The priest Basilios Yunnan pastor of St.Mary and St. George in the village of Dyfsh told Reuters that the death of Ibrahim, a criminal incident. He added: “But I could not prevent demonstrators from gathering outside the church.”

The village of Dyfsh witnessed sectarian events in 2000 and 2003 in which some persons were injured when Christians residing Dyfsh were building St. Mary and St. George in the village amid opposition from Muslims. It ended with finishing the construcion of the church in 2006.
The relations between Muslims and Christians are generally good, but the wrangling lies and sometimes clashes between Muslims and Christians occur because of disputes over land or relations between young men and girls or change of religion.

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