A mob of Muslim villagers in Egypt attacked a church and assaulted Coptic Christians in retaliation for a Facebook post published by a young Coptic man, which Muslim locals considered insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. Egyptian authorities made a number of arrests in the village of al Barsha, located in the Minya governorate, after the mob began hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at the homes of Copts while others stormed the Abu Siffin Church during a church service, the Middle East Monitor reported on November 27.
The rioters also ransacked a number of shops owned by Christians and an elderly Coptic woman was hospitalized for burns suffered in a fire after her home was torched.
Christian persecution around the globe reached an unprecedented level at the end of 2019, with over 260 million Christians facing “high levels of persecution.”
Initial reports said that police had arrested eight people but later reports said they had arrested a hundred people, including 35 Copts.
One video recording circulating on social media showed a group of people chanting: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger,” as they pelted a crowd of Christians with stones.
General Osama Al Qadi, Governor of the Minya Province, called a meeting at which he said that measures will be taken against “anyone who offends others,” reiterating that “no one will be allowed to sow discord between people who belong to the same nation,” while inviting local imams to focus their sermons in mosques on the themes of peaceful coexistence and tolerance.
Jihadists with ties to the al-Qaeda terror network executed a Christian missionary after four years in captivity in the African nation of Mali, Swiss authorities reported.
International Christian Concern (ICC) reported that free speech is suffering in Egypt as a number of human rights activists associated with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) have been arrested and blasphemy charges against Christians are on the increase. On November 11, Egyptian police arrested a young Christian teacher named Youssef Hany in northeastern Egypt on charges of insulting Islam in a Facebook post. Mr Hany posted comments responding to a Muslim who had expressed her opposition to criticisms of Islam by the president of France and other French citizens.