An attack against a church in Minya is promptly controlled by the local authorities As it should be

Last Tuesday evening the Copts of the village of Nazlet al-Badraman in Minya, Upper Egypt, were the victims of an attack by the village Muslims in the wake of the performance of restoration work on the church tower.
The church of Mar-Girgis in Badraman serves a congregation of 5000 people. Eight years ago the church building was restored, but not the tower-which is 50 years old, built atop the gate, separate from the church building. It later took the church officials some four years of laborious negotiation, pleading, and grappling with the authorities to obtain an official permit to restore the tower which had deteriorated into a life threatening condition.

Father Andrawus, a priest at the church, told Watani that once they had obtained the permit they began construction work early last week. On Tuesday evening a man called Sabra Mohamed Saleh, who is 26 years old and a baker, stood at the gate of the church and began mouthing indecencies against the priests and the church. Then he said: “You should stop this work. You are causing sectarian sedition.” The village guard sent him away but Saleh later returned accompanied by some 200 men carrying sticks and beams and shouting slogans against the church.
The priest Father Sarabamoun hastily asked all the workers and any Christians around to go into the church for protection, and closed the door. The mob outside began throwing stones at the church as they shouted Islamic and sectarian slogans. When the mayor Saber Moussa interfered and ordered them to leave they turned to the houses, shops and cars owned by the Coptic villagers and began attacking them. The 27-year-old Coptic young woman Iman Yunan Langi, who works as a teacher, was injured, as was the 12-year-old Muslim Mustafa Abdel-Latif who happened to be passing in front of the church. The windows of the church and homes were broken and four Coptic-owned cars were damaged. The terrified Copts kept to their homes and those who had taken refuge in the church, some 40 Copts, stayed there till late into the evening when the security forces were able to impose some calm in the village.

Thirteen Muslim men were detained pending investigation and charged with rioting.

Notably, it was the village mayor and his guards who speedily moved to contain the attack against the church, the police arrived quickly, and no Copts were detained along with the Muslim rioters.

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