Elderly Woman Stripped Naked, Paraded through Village
A mob of around 300 Muslim men victimized a 70-year-old Christian woman, stripping her naked, beating her and parading her through the streets of a village in Egypt, according to local officials.
The incident happened in the village of Karama, in the Minya province south of Cairo. Orthodox Coptic Church leaders said the mob also torched seven homes owned by Christian families.
The violence erupted last week after rumors spread that a Christian man, the elderly woman's son, was having an affair with a Muslim woman, church leaders reported.
Minya's top Christian cleric, Anba Makarios, spoke out about the incident on the private Dream TV network.
He said the mob dragged the woman out of her home, beat her, hurled insults at her, stripped her and then paraded her through the streets while chanting Allahu Akbar, or "God is great."
Makarios said in a statement that it took nearly two hours for police to respond. By then, the mob already had disbanded, The Independent reported.
He added that the Christian man's family let police know the day before the violence that Muslim villagers had threatened them.
"No one did anything and the police took no preemptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks," the cleric said in another TV interview.
Christians comprise about 10 percent of the population of Egypt. They have complained about discrimination for a long time in the country, which is mostly Muslim.
In Egypt, Christian men are forbidden to marry Muslim women; they must convert to Islam first. However, Muslim men are allowed to marry Christian women.
