Christian Town Besieged by Islamist Radicals


What do you get when you put together the largest Egyptian Christian community with one of the largest Islamist havens?  That's what is happening in Dalga.

Egypt's largest Christian community threatened as Islamists take over town
"A town of some 120,000 — including 20,000 Christians — Dalga has been outside government control since hard-line supporters of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi drove out police and occupied their station on July 3, the day Egypt's military chief removed the president in a popularly supported coup. It was part of a wave of attacks in the southern Minya province that targeted Christians, their homes and businesses. Since then, the radicals have imposed their grip on Dalga, twice driving off attempts by the army to send in armored personnel carriers by showering them with gunfire."

"Minya was the epicenter of an Islamic militant insurgency against the rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the 1980s and 1990s. It remains a stronghold of Islamists, including the extremist Gamaa Islamiya group. It also has the largest Christian community of any of Egypt's 29 provinces — at 35 percent of Minya's 4 million people, compared to around 10 percent nationwide."

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