Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2008/s08060140.htm
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Police Say Muslim Villagers attack Christians after Disappearance of Muslim Convert
By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS) — An Egyptian police official said security forces have clashed with hundreds of angry Muslims who attacked houses and shops owned by Christians in a tiny farming village south of Cairo.
According to a story by the Associated Press (AP), the clashes took place late Friday after the disappearance of a young woman who had converted to Islam in the village of al-Nazalah. Egypt has seen several incidents of violence between Muslims and Christians in recent weeks.
The AP reported the police official said officers fired tear gas at, and scuffled with, about 1,000 Muslims who had accused Christians of kidnaping the female Muslim convert to force her to return to Christianity.
The AP said he spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
A village priest told the AP that Muslim residents also threw Molotov cocktails at Christians.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2008/s08060138.htm
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Gunmen Kidnap At Least Nine Christians in NW Pakistan
By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Unidentified gunmen kidnapped nine Pakistani Christians on Saturday in an attack on a religious gathering in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
“The gunmen came in six vehicles and attacked the house where the Christian people were praying and took away at least nine people with them,” a senior police official, Imran Shahid, told Reuters reporter Faris Ali.
Reuters reported that some local residents said over two dozen people had been kidnapped in the attack in the Danishabad area of Peshawar city, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
According to Reuters, there was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the area is close to the Khyber tribal region where Islamist militants have been active in recent months. The region is also notorious for smugglers and bandits.
Reuters reported that Pakistan has seen a wave of militant violence; most of it in the northwest and the adjoining lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, since the middle of the last year, but minority Christians have not been overtly targeted as such.