AFP reports that in Egypt on Tuesday violence broke out between Muslims and Christians in a working class district of Cairo as 1000 Christians protested the burning of a Coptic Christian church last week. Ultimately 13 people-- 7 of them Copts-- were killed in the ensuing fighting, while 140 people were injured. At the regular U.S. State Department press briefing yesterday (full text), spokesman Mark Toner said that the US. was concerned about the violence against Copts. He said: "We have urged the Egyptian transitional government to act swiftly to bring the perpetrators of that violence to justice." Sify paints a more complicated picture of events leading up to the violence, tracing it originally back to what began as a family quarrel over a love affair between a Christian man and a Muslim girl. It chronicles the stoning of cars, mainly by Christians, after four days of peaceful demonstrations over the church burning.
UPDATE: The March 14 Christian Post reports that Egypt's military is funding a project to restore the St. Mina and St. George churches that were burned by a Muslim mob after villagers discovered a romantic relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman.
