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Ten people have been killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians in
Egypt's capital Cairo overnight. 12:53PM BST 08 May 2011
The Telegraph UK Egypt's military rulers said that 190 people have been detained
overnight in connection with the fighting and will face a military trial.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in power since a popular
uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February, ordered "the
transfer of all those arrested in connection with (Saturday's) events,
and they number 190, to the Supreme Military Court." The army said the move was a "deterrent" to all those who sought to sow
strife in the country. The statement came as Egypt's cabinet held crisis talks after Prime
Minister Essam Sharaf delayed a visit to Bahrain and the United Arab
Emirates. The clashes late Saturday in the Cairo working class neighbourhood of
Imbaba killed 10 Christians, injured 186 and set a church ablaze. Since Mubarak's overthrow, the country has been gripped by insecurity
and sectarian unrest, amid - by the government's admission - a
"counter-revolution" by remnants of the old regime aimed at sowing chaos. In its statement posted on Facebook, the army blamed "forces of evil and
darkness" for trying to "tear the national fabric." In Imbaba - an overcrowded maze of residential buildings and shops-
Muslim and Christian residents pleaded with Interior Minister Mansur
Essawy to boost security on the streets, the official MENA news agency said. The government has come under criticism for the shortage of police
forces and lack of security but during his walkabout Essawy vowed to
"improve security in the coming phase and bring back stability," MENA said. Victims' families will be paid 5,000 Egyptian pounds (around $840) in
compensation, and the injured will receive 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($336),
said Ali Abdelrahman, the governor of Giza where Imbaba lies. Imbaba has been sealed off and security has been stepped up around key
churches in the country, senior security official Mohsen Murad told
state TV. The two camps had clashed on Saturday after Muslims attacked the Coptic
Saint Mena church to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held
against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam. Egypt's mufti - the government's chief interpreter of Islamic law - Ali
Gomaa condemned the clashes and said they "were toying with Egypt's
national security." Military police parked outside the church in Imbaba on Saturday fired
their guns into the air as Christians in front of the church and Muslim
protesters down the street hurled stones at each other. The Muslim
protesters threw firebombs, one of them setting an apartment near the
church on fire. Coptic protesters scuffled with soldiers, blaming them for not doing
enough to protect them. The soldiers advanced at Muslim protesters who edged closer to the
church, firing over their heads to repel them. Special forces were later
deployed outside the church. Elsewhere in Imbaba, Muslim protesters threw firebombs at another
church, setting it on fire, police officials said. They said the fire
was put out. At one of the cordons outside the St Mena church, Muslim protesters said
they were first fired upon by the Copts, after they tried to find a
Christian woman they say converted to Islam and was being held inside. Copts account for up to 10 percent of the country's 80 million people
and they complain of discrimination, and have been the targets of fairly
regular sectarian attacks. Claims that Christian women who converted to Islam were kidnapped and
held in churches or monasteries have soured relations between the two
communities for months. Egypt's military rulers had warned on May 1 of strong measures against
anyone inciting sectarian strife, in a bid to ease tensions between
Muslims and Christians. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said it was "exerting all
efforts to end sectarian disagreements on the Egyptian street to protect
this nation." The statement came after a series of Muslim-Christian clashes and amid
the growing public presence of Salafis - a puritanical Islamist sect -
since the fall of Mubarak after a wave of mass protests.
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