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Updated: February 10, 2002 11:42
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CAIRO
(Reuters) - Muslims in a southern Egyptian town clashed
with Coptic Christians Sunday after complaining that
their new church bell was too loud, ending an
eight-month period of sectarian calm, security sources
said.
A total of 11 people,
including two policemen, were slightly hurt in the
clashes in a town near Minya, some 140 miles southeast
of Cairo, a government statement said. It added that
police managed to put out a number of small fires that
had been started in nearby cars and homes.
"Provocative elements
from both sides, Muslim and Christian, got carried away
in their reaction which led to friction between them
and...resulted in the lighting of some fires in three
cars and...five homes," the statement said.
Security sources told Reuters
Muslims had pelted a Coptic church with rocks and Copts
inside the church fired buckshot at them in response.
The conflict erupted when
Muslim community members said a new church bell was too
loud, the security sources said.
The government statement said
authorities had arrested 43 people and were questioning
them. The governor of Minya told state-run television
that calm had returned to the town.
Underlying tensions between
Egypt's Christian minority, who form about a tenth of
the nearly 76 million population, and fellow Muslims
have led to deadly clashes in the past.
In 1999, 19 Copts and two
Muslims were killed, 33 people were wounded and scores
of shops destroyed in days of clashes in Kosheh, about
250 miles south of Cairo.
Last year, hundreds of angry
Copts held days of demonstrations in a Cairo church to
protest against a newspaper's graphic report about the
alleged sexual misconduct of a Coptic cleric in southern
Egypt. The protesters, who clashed with police, said the
article insulted their faith.
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