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Convent of the Virgin Mary |
One Muslim man was killed and four Coptic Christians, including two monks, injured Saturday when a land dispute involving a historic monastery in Egypt turned violent, a security official said.
Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed, a Muslim resident of a town neighbouring the Abu Fana Monastery near the southern city of Minya, was killed during clashes with Christians, the official said.
Two Coptic Christian workers at the monastery suffered gunshot wounds and were rushed to nearby Mallawi hospital in critical condition, and two monks suffered injuries in the same incident.
An angry group of Copts later gathered outside Mallawi hospital in protest, throwing rocks at hospital windows and damaging surrounding property, the official said.
The injured Copts were rushed to another hospital while security services tried to control the situation, he added.
Minya Governor Ahmed Dia Eddine sought to play down the incident, saying it was a personal rather than sectarian issue.
"This was a fight between two neighbours and nothing else," Dia Eddine told the Dream Egyptian satellite channel.
The clashes broke out when the monastery began building a wall around neighbouring property after receiving final approval earlier this year.
Muslims residents of the area claim the agricultural land on which the wall is being built as theirs, and say the wall damages their vital crops.
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.
Tensions often run high between Egypt's Muslim and Christian communities in an increasingly religious society dominated by Sunni Muslims.