The sectarian strife in the village of Kafr Darwish in Beni Suef, which began a few days ago following a young Coptic man's seeming offensive phrases about Islam on Facebook, escalated Monday evening after three huts belonging to Copts were burned.
Reconciliation was scheduled between Muslims and Copts at the Beni Suef headquarters, but was postponed following the incident.
Brigadier-General Amr Adl said a previous reconciliation session, which included senior representatives from Christian families, Christian clergymen and the heads of Muslim families, had been held. Both parties had agreed that the family of the young Christian man should leave the village in order to retain the otherwise good relationship between Muslims and Christians in the village.
When the Copts' huts were burned, however, reconciliation efforts were stalled, Adl added.
Father Hatur Beshry of the Kafr Darwish Virgin Church said the situation was unstable in the village, despite the fact that the majority of Muslim residents are against the expulsion of the Coptic family.
Beshry also criticized the role of the security, saying they dealt with the issue in the same way as they had done before the revolution.
On Sunday evening, host Youssef al-Husseiny played a video during his program on the television channel OnTV showing five out of 18 Christian families were being forced to leave their homes in Kafr Darwish after the young Coptic man allegedly published posts insulting the Prophet Mohamed. The reconcilation efforts later determined that only the young man's immediate family be banished from the village
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
