Authorities at the Cairo International Airport detained two Shia activists upon their arrival from Tehran on Saturday, the website of state owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.
The paper added that the authorities searched the detainees' belongings and they were carrying "Shia books."
One of the activists is Mohamed al-Taher, son of Al-Taher al-Hashiemy, the secretary general of the Hashemeya Sufi order and one of the founders of the Sufi-led Egyptian Tahrir Party. The second activist is Mohamed al-Husseini.
The paper said that the two activists were coming from Tehran, having been among over 1,200 young people from Iran and 73 other countries participating in the International Conference on Islamic Awakening and Young People.
Al-Ahram reported that some Egyptian Shias threatened to stage a sit-in inside the airport until the two activists are released.
Shia community leaders complained of persecution and detention under the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak. Hashiemy himself once said that Shias abstained from performing their rituals to avoid detention by the now dissolved State Security Investigation Services.
Last month, security forces shut Cairo's Hussein Mosque, apparently fearing that non-Shia citizens would react angrily to some Egyptian Shias celebrating Ashura, an annual event that marks the death of the Prophet Mohamed's grandson Imam Hussein.
