Religion and Politics

In Islamist Bastions of Egypt, the Army Treads Carefully, and Christians Do, Too

The New York Times’ David D. Kirkpatrick reports on the Islamist strongholds south of Cairo, where the military is often outnumbered and unable to protect Christians who have been victims of backlash in the wake of Morsi’s ouster. “Almost as soon as security forces began clearing the Islamist sit-ins in Cairo on the morning of Aug. 14, dozens of churches across the province came under a wave of retaliatory attacks, priests and residents said, while soldiers and the police did nothing,” Kirkpatrick writes. “Nowhere was the violence worse than Dalga. Inside its Virgin Mary and Father Abraam monastery, looters ransacked its two churches, library and residences, stealing or destroying ancient books, relics and even a medieval baptismal font—again, stripping the walls of window glass, iron and even electrical wiring.”

Read at The New York Times

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