Six people were injured yesterday in clashes between Muslims and Christians in Ezbat Girgis village, Fashn district, Beni Suef governorate. The injured were hospitalized. The clashes broke out after the village's priest allocated a story in his home for celebrating Sunday Mass. In a related context, a rumor led to new clashes between Muslims and Christians in Meet al-Qurashi village, Dakahlia governorate.
Beni Suef security forces arrested 15 people after Friday congregational prayers. Seven security vehicles surrounded Ezbat Girgis village and the home of priest Samaan, pastor of the Julius Church, who accused Muslims of trying to burn a bus owned by the church.
Speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Samaan said: "I saw the opposite house on fire yesterday at dawn and we found kerosene next to the bus. We harried to save the house of the Christian neighbor and filed a report to the police station. I said in the report that I allocated a story for Sunday Mass." The injured are: Futna Sami Fouad, Zainab Ali Khamis, Zainab Abdel Salam Mustafa, Enam Saad Ibrahim, Nadia Mohamed Morad, and Hegazi Ramadan Gomaa. Hamdi Farouk, Attorney General of Beni Suef Prosecutions, called on the prosecution to launch investigations and hear the testimony of the injured as soon as possible.
In Dakahlia, clashes renewed between Muslims and Christians in Meet al-Qurashi village after it was rumored that the family of a Muslim casualty dropped its lawsuit against a Christian family. The security forces managed to end the clashes after telling people that the victim's family did not drop the lawsuit. A large number of Christians, protected by security men, fled from the village last Thursday. For the third day in a row, the village has been turned into a military barrack. Security forces cordoned the village's mosque and increased their presence inside and outside the village in anticipation of new clashes after Friday prayers.
Speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Latif Fawzi, the village's mayor, said he fled from the village after his young daughter suffered from a nervous breakdown after a number of youths threw stones at his house and broke its windows. "In the day of the accident, I was surprised by some people asking for help after a fight between the victim, Mohamed, and a number of his friends on the one hand and the family of Emil, a grocer, whose sons John and Jean stabbed Mohamed several times," Fawzi said.
For his part, Amir Nassif, Meet Ghamr Public Prosecutor, has accused the entire Christian family of premeditated murder and released Tayseer Attiya Girgis for health reasons.
