Human Rights Watch has urged the authorities in Egypt to act to protect churches and religious institutions which have been under attack since the country’s interim government began its crackdown on supporters of Mohamed Morsi on August 14. (Also see: Hosni Mubarak Released From Jail, MB Leader Detained For 15 Days)
In a report released on Thursday, the New York-based rights group said that the authorities largely ignored pleas made by Christians as mobs of armed men attacked and ransacked over 40 churches across the country.
HRW said that at least four people have been killed in the mass attacks which followed the state’s violent dispersal of two protest camps of supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
“Immediately following the violent dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo on August 14, crowds of men attacked at least 42 churches, burning or damaging 37, as well as dozens of other Christian religious institutions in the governorates of Minya, Asyut, Fayum, Giza, Suez, Sohag, Bani Suef, and North Sinai.”
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Mohamed Morsi supporters crackdown: Egypt arrests Muslim Brotherhood spokesman
Security forces arrested the Muslim Brotherhood’s spokesman, Ahmed Aref, early on Thursday.
A security source said that Aref was arrested at his father-in-law’s residence in Nasr City in Cairo while the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party confirmed the news on its official page.
The authorities have also arrested the group’s supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, and other leading Brotherhood members since they began their crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi last Wednesday.
This content is from : Aswat Masriya