Egypt tightens security amid inter-faith tensions

(JakartaForum-Reuters) - Egypt stepped up security around churches in Cairo on Monday after two days of clashes between minority Christians and Muslims that killed 12 people and highlighted rising inter-faith tensions.

By Yasmine Saleh and Sarah Mikhail

The violence that left a church wrecked by fire and more than 238 people wounded at the weekend was triggered by rumors that Christians had abducted a woman who converted to Islam.

The incident poses a challenge for Egypt's new military rulers, under pressure to impose security and revive the ailing economy while seeking to keep a neutral position and avoid the tough security tactics against Islamists used by Hosni Mubarak.

Members of Egypt's Christian minority and even some Muslims have blamed the tensions on the emergence of Salafists, followers of a strict interpretation of Islam and who were repressed by Mubarak's security forces.

"If I had the chance I would flee the country, there is no more opportunity for Copts especially as the authorities are leaving ignorant people to burn down churches," said Fawzi Nabeeh, a Coptic Christian engineer, who blamed the incident on "a rise in (Islamic) fundamentalism."

Four army and security vehicles were outside the Cairo cathedral where Nabeeh spoke. Army vehicles were also posted outside other churches.

In the northern city of Alexandria, dozens of Muslims and Christians gathered to condemn the violence in Cairo.

"It is the same play and Copts are the victims," they chanted. "Oh Tantawi, where are you? They burned down my church in front of you!" they said in reference to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the ruling army council.

Christians make up about a tenth of Egypt's 80 million people.

Sectarian strife often flares over conversions, family disputes and the building of churches. Muslims and Christians made demonstrations of unity in protests that overthrew Mubarak on February 11, but inter-faith tensions have grown since then.

REBUILDING THE CHURCH

A tight security cordon restricted access around Saint Mina church in Imbaba, the Cairo district where the clashes erupted on Saturday evening and extended into Sunday. Another church, Saint Mary's, was burned and blackened by fire.

Ali Abdel-Rahman, the governor of Cairo's Giza region that includes the Imbaba district, pledged to cover the cost of rebuilding Saint Mary's, adding that it would take about three months, the state news agency reported.

The army has said that 190 people would be tried in military courts over the violence.

Some blamed Mubarak's supporters for stirring up unrest in a bid to undermine the uprising that ousted the president.

Mostafa Sayed, a Muslim doctor, said Salafists lacked organization and this "made it easy for thugs and remains of the old regime to use them to create this chaos."

The clashes on Saturday and Sunday were Egypt's worst inter-faith violence since 13 people died on March 9. That incident was prompted by the burning of a church.

Justice Minister Mohamed el-Guindy said gatherings around places of worship would be banned to protect their sanctity and as part of efforts to prevent sectarian strife.

About 500 Salafists had massed outside Imbaba's Saint Mina church on Saturday to call on Christians to hand over a woman they said was being held there.

Gunfire broke out as more people converged on the church and both sides traded firebombs and stones, witnesses said. Soldiers and police fired shots in the air and used teargas to separate the sides but stone-throwing went on into the night.

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group widely regarded as Egypt's best organised political force, denounced the violence.

Egypt's highest religious authority, Al-Azhar, held an emergency meeting to discuss the clashes, and Egypt's Grand Mufti called for a conference of national reconciliation.

Secular Egyptians have also voiced unease at what they see as a lax approach to Salafist violence since Mubarak's ouster.

(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed; Writing by Edmund Blair)

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