ISNA, Egypt (AFP) — Seven Muslims were detained in southern Egypt on Sunday after setting fire to a church and shops owned by Christians in retaliation for the alleged rape of a Muslim girl, a security source said.
The seven set fire to 13 shops owned by Egyptian Christians in the southern city of Isna late on Saturday. They also threw Molotov cocktails at a local church, the source told AFP.
They told police they were acting in retaliation for the alleged rape last week of a Muslim girl by three Christians boys.
The three Christians were detained on Saturday and taken to a police station where an angry crowd of about 150 Muslims gathered, hurling stones and bottles.
"The seven were also demonstrating outside the police station, then they left the protest and started setting fire to property owned by Christians," the source told AFP.
Tensions often run high between Egypt's Muslim and Christian communities in an increasingly religious society dominated by Sunni Muslims.
Egypt's Copts -- the largest Christian community in the Middle East -- account for an estimated six to 10 percent of the country's 76 million inhabitants and complain of systematic discrimination and harassment.
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