The sectarian tensions in Upper Egypt have been building through the weekend. There were some Christian attacks on Muslim shops in the village of Bahgura, and Christian protests continue. There are signs the government may be ready to try to calm things down by charging the killers with terrorism and sowing sectarian division rather than just murder. (And they did kill a cop as well as six Copts.) If you read Arabic, check out Al-Masry al-Youm's latest story and the earlier links below it. They're giving good coverage.
This is the worst sectarian violence in Upper Egypt since Kosheh back in 2000; in my then-newsletter The Estimate at the time I wrote this analysis on "Egypt's Copts After Kosheh": Part One. And Part Two. It remains, I suspect, my best analysis to date on Coptic-Muslim tensions in Upper Egypt, despite being a decade old.
Monday, January 11, 2010
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