Sectarian clashes have broken out in Egypt between more than 1,300 Coptic Christians and Muslims, killing one person and wounding scores more as anger rose over a church burning in a Cairo suburb.
Tuesday's violence erupted after Coptic Christians held protests in several locations in the Egyptian capital that were perceived as persecution by the country's Muslim majority.
One group of Christians blocked a main highway south of the capital and clashed with Muslims who wanted to pass through. Both sides threw rocks and riot police fired shots in the air to break up the melee. Another crowd of hundreds of protesters – including a group of garbage collectors, who are predominantly Christian, demonstrated outside the main television building in central Cario, demanding equal rights. Many carried tall wooden crosses.
At least one Christian man has been killed in the clashes, which began Monday.
Christians initiated the protests after local Muslims set fire to a church on Sunday in the outskirts of the capital following a conflict between two families sparked by what residents say is a relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman.
Egypt's military rulers promised Tuesday to rebuild the church and prosecute the attackers. But Christians complain the military has been slow to move and reluctant to anger Muslims living in the community. Newly appointed Prime Minister Essam Sharaf met Monday with local Christians protesting the attack.
Even before Egypt's pro-democracy uprising unleashed a torrent of discontent, tensions had been growing between Christians and Muslims in the North African country.
On New Year's Day, a suicide bombing outside a Coptic church in the port city of Alexandria killed 21 people, setting off days of protests. Barely a week later, an off-duty policeman boarded a train and shot a 71-year-old Christian man, killing him and wounding his wife and four others.
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