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Egypt police hold 37 after village killing, violence

Other News Materials 2 July 2009 02:58 (UTC +04:00)

Police have arrested 37 Muslims and Christians from a village in Egypt's Nile Delta in connection with the killing of a Muslim man and violence that followed, witnesses and security sources said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The 18-year-old Muslim died on Tuesday after a fight a day earlier, leading to the arrest of a Christian family of a father, mother and two sons, as well as three Muslim men. The dispute arose over the price of goods purchased at a shop owned by the Christian family, residents said. After the funeral of the dead man, dozens of Muslims set ablaze two Christian-owned homes and pelted stones at Christians on Wednesday in the village of Mit el-Qureishi in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo. That violence led to the arrest of 30 more Muslims. All of the 37 arrested would be held for four days for investigation, a judicial source said. A curfew was imposed on the village, security sources said. Relations between Egypt's majority Muslims and its Christians, mainly Copts, are usually calm but can become strained and sometimes erupt into violence over issues such as inter-faith relationships and land. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 77 million people.

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