On Friday, Mar. 1, there were skirmishes outside St. George Church in Kom Ombo in the Governorate of Aswan. Following Friday prayers, a number of people threw rocks at the security forces that had been present since Thursday evening in order to protect the church. The confrontations surfaced as a result of the mysterious kidnapping of a Muslim woman. A colleague of the disappeared woman leaked information about her conversion. No one was injured during the clashes.
Various imāms called for Muslims to follow the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad in order to get through this crisis. They demanded that the advocates of this strife, who are trying to use the case of the missing woman as a pretext to destabilize security, stop their actions that could spread throughout the country.
St. George's Church is being accused of kidnapping the 36-year-old teacher, Sahar Tūnī, with the intention of converting her to Christianity. Sahar had close connections to a Christian colleague with whom she was last seen five days before her disappearance. Dozens of family members of the missing woman surrounded the church and attempted to storm the church in search of the woman. Others blocked the main road from Aswan to Cairo (Mū'āz Muhammad, al-Misrīyūn, Mar. 2, p. 1). Read original text in Arabic.
(Author’s Note: The above newspapers reveal a different account of events. Al-Misrīyūn is the only newspaper claiming no injuries were reported during the clashes between protesters and security forces around St. George's Church in Kom Ombo.)
