Security authorities in Minya on Monday ended a concert organized by the governor as a precaution after hard-line Islamist groups interrupted the event, claiming it involved missionary practices, probably because the shows contained psalms.
Dozens of April 6 Youth Movement members who attended the event and others tried to convince the concert's opponents that the event had a nationalist purpose and that a similar event was held three months earlier, Aswat Masriya website said.
Karim Gouhar, one of the event’s sponsors, said they were surprised when dozens of individuals started uproariously chanting, “Egypt is Islamic,” and later understood that some opposed the concert.
Gohar explained that shows were performed by Qalb Masr, a musical team including dozens of Muslims and Christians, adding that the songs were a mix of Islamic and Christian psalms praying for stability in Egypt and national unity between Muslims and Christians.
Father Pauls Nassef Yacoub, one of the attendants, said the governor belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood. He added that attendants included the Minya secretary for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, as well as some Al-Azhar scholars.
Pauls told Aswat Masriya that they tried to convince the opposing mobs of the real purpose of the event, but in vain, which obliged them to cancel the concert and evacuate spectators through a backdoor.
