Sectarian clashes in Egypt

News compiled by Miret el Naggar:

Copts and Muslims clash in Alexandria

Police on Saturday arrested 25 people in the northern port city Alexandria following clashes between Christians and Muslims that left nine people injured.

The mob hurled bottles and stones that damaged around nine cars and several shop displays.

There were two accounts as the why the fight occurred.

In one account, a bicycle repairman saw Ahmed Abdelhamid,22, a Muslim, fighting with Samy Rustum, 21, a Coptic Christian, because the latter was allegedly accompanying a Muslim girl into a residential building. Both young men then called for their friends for help.

In the second account, a witness saw a group of Muslim youths trying to sell drugs to a Coptic Christian, who then called for his friends and family members to help him fight of the Muslim group.

Security forces arrived shortly after the fighting started and rounded up the mob for questioning.

Coptic Christians make up around ten percent of Egypt's 77 million people. Sectarian tensions this summer left 10 people injured and scores of shops damaged after a group of Copts accused Muslim villagers of preventing them from building a church.

In 2006 two people, a Copt and a Muslim died after a man attacked three churches in Alexandria. Security forces later said the attacker was mentally impaired.

Workers go on strike

In a separate incident, thousands of workers in the eastern city of al Mahalla went on strike today in protest of their low wages and for not receiving neither their incentives nor their annual raises.

About 27,000 workers at the "Mahalla Weavers" factory demonstrated in front of the factory's executive office to announce their demands.

The labor union later announced it came to a compromise with the factory to give the workers 40-Day's worth of salary, and will negotiate the rest of their demands.