A Muslim mob set fire to seven Christian homes in southern Egypt, and stripped an elderly woman over her son's alleged affair with a Muslim woman.
The 70-year-old woman was stripped naked and made to walk through the streets, and flammable projectiles were thrown at homes of Christians in Al-Karm village in Minya province which has the highest percentage (35%) of Christians in Egypt.
Her son who was rumored to be having a relationship with a Muslim woman had already fled the village with his wife and children a day before the attack.
A Member of Parliament and lawyer, Dr Ihab Ramzi, said that the tracts had been distributed in the village, calling for harming Christians in the area. Those tracts were delivered to police as well, but they took no action.
Police responded about two hours after the incidence, but the crowds had already disbursed by then. A top Orthodox Coptic Church cleric, Anba Makarios, said in a local TV interview that the mob was given "ample time" to wreak havoc on the villagers.
"No one did anything and the police took no preemptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks," Makarios said on Dream TV. "We are not living in a jungle or a tribal society. It's incorrect for anyone to declare himself judge, police and ruler."
He said that the woman filed a complaint with the police only five days later, because she was not able to "swallow the humiliation." An official statement describing the woman's abuse was also signed by the cleric.
"They burned the house and went in and dragged me out, threw me in front of the house and ripped my clothes. I was just as my mother gave birth to me and was screaming and crying," the woman told Reuters.
The news angered the Coptic Christian community, and they have asked President Abdel Fatah Sisi to apologize to the woman.
"When a woman was stripped naked at Tahrir Square, President Sisi visited in hospital and apologized to her," Fady Youssef, the chair of the Coalition of Egypt, told a Al Nabaa.
"The Coptic woman is in no way inferior to the woman from Tahrir Square. It's her right to get an apology from the President on behalf of the Egyptian people for what this bunch of criminals did to her."
The president has condemned the attack and ordered investigation into the incidence and indict those responsible for the attack. He has also directed the local authorities to repair and rebuild the ruined homes from state funds.
