At least 2 injured in clashes involving Coptics in Cairo

From Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, For CNN

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — Violence erupted in the Cairo neighborhood of Maspero on Saturday when some 2,000 pro-Coptic protesters clashed with several dozen unidentified men, leaving at least two people injured.

The demonstrators had staged a sit-in in front of the state TV building to demand greater rights for the religious minority.

Problems between Egypt’s Muslim majority and its Coptic Christian minority have been on the rise in recent months, with a number of violent clashes reported between the two groups.

Dozens of unidentified men, dressed in plain clothes, began firing live ammunition into the air and attacking the demonstrators around the entrance of the sit-in enclosure with sticks and stones. They also threw Molotov cocktails. It was not immediately clear who the attackers were or what their motive was.

“They did not have beards. It was just a bunch of bad guys carrying guns and clubs,” said Maged Girguis, a pro-Coptic protester.

Egyptian riot police were deployed and created a human barrier between the men and the demonstrators.

At least two people were injured in the clashes.

A pro-Coptic protester was hit in the head by a rock. He initially refused to enter an ambulance, saying he feared arrest by the army. Volunteer doctors attempted to treat him in a make-shift field clinic but his wounds were severe and he was eventually taken away in the ambulance.

The demonstrators captured one of their alleged attackers, who was badly beaten.

The pro-Coptic protesters were breaking up the sidewalk around the television station and throwing chunks of rock and concrete at their attackers. The demonstrators were armed with clubs and metal chains and a man was seen carrying a sword.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent bipartisan federal agency, last month added Egypt to a list of countries named as the worst violators of religious freedom.

“The Egyptian government engaged in and tolerated religious freedom violations before and after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2001,” the commissioners wrote in the report. They cited violence toward religious minorities in Egypt, including Coptic Christians and non-majority Muslim groups.

“Since February 11, religious freedom conditions have not improved and attacks targeting religious minorities have continued,” the report said.

Officials reported at least 12 people were killed and 230 injured in sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians in the town of Imbaba in Cairo on May 7.

A Coptic church in the town of Alexandria was bombed on New Year’s Day, killing 23 people — the deadliest attack on Christians in Egypt in recent times.

About 9% of Egypt’s 80 million residents are Coptic Christians. They base their theology on the teachings of the Apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt, according to St. Takla Church in Alexandria, the capital of Coptic Christianity.

The religion split with other Christians in the 5th century over the definition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.