Say Islam is a religion of peace, or we’ll kill you. “The protesters have given the church a week to apologise and dismiss its priest.” And what will happen if they don’t? “Egypt Muslims protest ‘offensive’ play,” from Al-Jazeera, with thanks to Susan:
About 3000 Muslims have protested angrily outside a Coptic Christian church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, charging that a drama that was presented in the church was offensive to Islam.
City authorities dispatched about 200 police to St Gergis church in the Muharram Bec neighbourhood in Alexandria on Friday to keep the demonstrators from entering and disrupting the play.
The production features a poor Christian university student who converts to Islam when a group of Muslim men promise him much-needed money.
When he becomes disenchanted with his decision, the men threaten him with physical violence to prevent him from returning to his original faith.
DVDs of the performance, entitled I Was Blind But Now I Can See, were being distributed by Coptic Christians, who make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 70 million.
Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, a Muslim in Alexandria, said that he had watched a recording of the play and found it “offending”.
The protesters have given the church a week to apologise and dismiss its priest, Aljazeera’s correspondent in Egypt said.