Muslims set upon Christians this weekend in the village of Bahma on the outskirts of Cairo, inflicting injuries and destroying homes.  Local Coptic Christians planned to develop a church on a property already owned by Christians, but Muslims went on a rampage when word got out.

The following information comes from a blog post written by an Egyptian Muslim, as translated by Global Voices Online.

Muslim Egyptians burned five shops which are the only means of livelihood for complete families. They also burned 25 homes which are the private property and shelter for their Coptic neighbours. The Muslims burned the shops and homes with Kerosene. They then hit their residents with sticks and pelted them with stones. According to the Masri El Youm newspaper, this is what happened in the village of Bahma and resulted in 11 Egyptian Coptics suffering from burns, fractured bones and bruises.
. . .
The reason for all this? A total of 300 Copts in the village wanted to transfer one of the homes, owned by a Coptic in the village, into a church. One of the villages, who is said to be an Imam (clergyman) of a mosque, distributed leaflets calling upon Muslims to defend their beautiful village.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the press paid much attention to the conflict.

Another Egyptian blogger points out that the disturbance started after Friday prayers at the village’s main mosque.  Is that a coincidence or what?

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