A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

New Coptic-Muslim Violence in Upper Egypt

There's been a new outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence in Upper Egypt, in Qena governorate, where several houses have been burned following tensions over an alleged romance between a Christian man and a Muslim woman. More here. These sporadic outbursts continue to be a problem, and coming at a time when tensions between Copts and Muslims have been unusually high, they will probably draw more international attention than usual. This may be an isolated incident and it sounds as if the security forces moved quickly to contain it, so I'll reserve analysis until we know more (if we ever do).

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