It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…
In Alexandria, Egypt, a Muslim mob attacked a Christian church and rioted to protest the release of a DVD that portrayed Muslims attacking Christian churches: One dead in violent Muslim protest in Egypt.
CAIRO (AFP) - One Muslim protestor was killed and dozens more wounded in violent clashes with police in Alexandria amid mounting tensions in the Egyptian Mediterranean city over a Christian video, the interior ministry said.
Following an earlier demonstration that had gathered at least 5,000 people, Muslims angered by release of a DVD by the Saint Girgis Church grouped outside the building again in the evening after breaking their Ramadan fast.
Twenty policemen and sixty protestors were wounded, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP. One wounded protestor, named as Mohammed Zakariya, later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
One police car and six other vehicles were burned in the clashes, which were still ongoing. Fifty-three protestors had been arrested, the ministry said.
The Muslim protestors had earlier attacked the church and injured a passer-by, as they vented anger over the DVD release of a play produced by Saint Girgis two years ago they consider to be anti-Muslim.
The protests came three days after a man lightly wounded a nun with a knife at the entrance to the same church, and a man who came to her aid was stabbed in the back.
The play, performed by amateur actors, tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and is exhorted by a sheikh to kill priests and destroy churches, according to the independent Al-Dustur paper.