Sectarian conflict

An interfaith protest for national unity in Cairo on Sunday was disrupted by a group of men hurling stones, one day after sectarian violence in the Egyptian capital killed 12 people.

Some 400 Muslims and Christians were holding a joint demonstration near Cairo's High Court when dozens of men from a nearby neighborhood began throwing rocks at them. An official described the men throwing stones as "thugs."

Some demonstrators threw stones back at the men before the scuffle settled down and the crowds dispersed. Demonstrators regrouped outside the state television headquarters, where their numbers were reportedly growing.

Crisis meeting

Meanwhile, Egypt's prime minister held a crisis cabinet meeting on Sunday that lasted nearly four hours to address the weekend's deadly clashes.

Justice Minister Abdel Aziz al-Gindi told reporters after the meeting that the authorities would "strike with an iron hand all those who seek to tamper with the nation's security."

Gindi said the government would "immediately and firmly implement the laws that criminalize attacks against places of worship and freedom of belief."

State television reported that 12 people were killed and 232 injured when sectarian violence erupted in the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba in northwestern Cairo. At least six of the dead were Muslim and at least four Christian.

The area was sealed off and security stepped up around key churches in the country, a senior security official, Mohsen Murad, told state TV.

Religiously motivated violence

The two camps had clashed on Saturday after Muslims attacked the Coptic Saint Mena church to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam.

Riot police fired their guns into the air as Christians in front of the church and Muslim protesters down the street hurled stones at each other. The Muslim protesters threw firebombs, one of them setting an apartment near the church on fire.

The injured, who suffered from fractures and gunshot wounds, were taken to four city hospitals, medical officials said.

National security

Ali Gomaa, Egypt's chief interpreter of Islamic law - or mufti - condemned the clashes and said they "were toying with Egypt's national security."

The violence could not have been caused by "religious people who understand their religion, whether Muslim or Christian," he told MENA late on Saturday.

At one of the cordons outside the Saint Mena church, Muslim protesters said they were first fired upon by the Copts, after they tried to find the Christian woman they claimed was a convert to Islam.

Copts account for up to 10 percent of the country's 80 million people and complain that they are the victims of religious discrimination.

A bomb attack at a Coptic church in Alexandria on New Year's Day garnered international condemnation after 21 Christians were killed and dozens of others injured.

Authors: Andrew Bowen, Gabriel Borrud (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Editor: Kyle James