Perilous times for Egypt’s Christian community. In “Egypt’s Coptic Christians Are Choosing Isolation,”<\/a> the Washington Post reports that “the most populous Christian community in the Middle East is seeking safety by turning inward, cutting day-to-day social ties that have bound Muslim to Christian in Egypt for centuries.”<\/p>\n The story notes a dramatic decline in of the Coptic Christian population in Egypt. Violent confrontations between Muslims and Christians are on the upswing. In May, Arab Bedouins attacked monks reclaiming the 1,700-year-old monastery of Abu Fana<\/a>. <\/p>\n Monks say the attackers fired on them with AK-47 assault rifles and captured some among them to torture. Attackers broke the legs of one monk by pounding them between two rocks. One Muslim man was killed.<\/p>\n A few days earlier, gunmen in Cairo killed four Copts at a jewelry store but left without taking anything. Strife over liaisons between Christian and Muslim men and women led to recent clashes between the communities in Egypt’s countryside.<\/p>\n Egypt’s government invariably denies that sectarian tension lies behind the violence. It blamed the violence at the Abu Fana monastery on a land dispute.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A monk, Brother Shenouda, says: “I believe we will be the new martyrs.”<\/p>\n The Free Copts<\/a> site has extensive coverage of the violence directed at Christians.<\/p>\n