CAIRO – Hundreds of Egyptians on Monday protested against the appointment of a Christian governor in the southern city of Qena, as officials scrambled to end the four-day crisis, security officials said.
Protests first kicked off on Friday after Emad Mikhail was appointed governor of Qena which has a large Coptic Christian population and a history of sectarian strife.
Interior Minister Mansur Essawy, who made an impromptu visit to the southern province late on Sunday, failed to resolve the crisis which saw protesters camp out outside the governor's office and cut off major roads and a railway track, a security official said.
Muslim residents and Salafi Islamist groups were joined by Coptic Christian residents in denouncing the appointment of Mikhail, a senior police official under the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
Residents also say that previous Coptic governors have failed to resolve sectarian tensions in the province.
Essawy said he would take the protesters' demands to the ruling military council, which took power when Mubarak was overthrown by a popular uprising on February 11.
In 2010, six Copts were gunned down as they came out of a Christmas mass in the southern city of Naga Hammadi, which belongs to the Qena province, in an attack that also left one Muslim policeman dead.
Residents at the time slammed Mikhail's predecessor, Magdi Ayoub – also a Copt–, for failing to pursue justice after the attack for fear of further compromising the already fragile status of Coptic officials.
Egypt's Christians, who make up 10 percent of the 80-million population, have been the target of several attacks and have repeatedly accused the authorities of systematic discrimination.a
