Two people were killed and a church burnt on Saturday due to disputes over Christian-Muslim relationship in Egypt’s Helwan Governorate in the south of Cairo.
Egyptian Interior Ministry agencies received a complaint on Friday night about a fight in the village of Soul between a farmer and his two relatives as he didn’t take any action against a Christian merchant who reportedly had a love affair with his daughter, state MENA news agency reported.
The fight developed into a shoot-out which killed the farmer and one of his relatives, it added.
After the funeral, crowds from the village went to the Shahedain church protesting over the relationship between the Christian and the Muslim girl. Villagers broke into the church and torched it.
Security forces and firefighters managed to put out fire and ambulances evacuated the priests from the church.
The securities forces and armed forces continued the procedures of controlling the situation with the help of the village’s families.
Christians represented about 10 percent of the 80-million Egyptian population. Any marriage between Muslim and Christian is forbidden according to Islamic jurisdictions.
The armed forces called on the citizens for cooperation to contain the accident’s deterioration and maintain the country’s unity.