Nuns Traumatized After School Attack in Egypt

Religion Today | Published: Mar 16, 2012

Nuns Traumatized After School Attack in Egypt

March 19, 2012

 

Two nuns in Upper Egypt faced "unimaginable fear" -- with one later hospitalized over the emotional trauma -- when 1,500 Muslim villagers brandishing swords and knives trapped them inside a guesthouse of a privately run public school last week and threatened to burn them out, Compass Direct News reports. Accusing the nuns of building a church at the site, the mob chanted Islamic slogans as they surrounded the guesthouse. From three mosques near the school, people began shouting over loudspeakers in minarets, summoning more Muslims to join the mob. The nuns, volunteer teachers at the school, barricaded themselves inside for about eight hours, suffering cuts and bruises during the attack. School workers hid a third nun from the mob in a separate building on the campus out of fear they would attack her as well. The next day, assailants frightened children at the school; attendance has since dropped by more than a third.

Nuns Traumatized After School Attack in Egypt