Orthodox monastery on Egypt’s Red Sea coast withdrew Tuesday, August 19, after President Hosny Mubarak intervened, a human rights watchdog said.
The Barnabas Fund, which supports persecuted Christians, said the break through came just hours after police officers had surrounded the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of St Anthony’s hours earlier with the apparent intention to destroy its walls.
Correspondent Michael Ireland reported earlier from Washington that Coptic Christians in the United States contacted Egyptian President i Mubarak protesting "the attack by Egyptian forces."
MONKS
Meanwhile monks from the monastery "were protesting outside the building trying desperately to protect their home," The Barnabas Fund said in a statement seen by BosNewsLife.
The police officers were reportedly acting on orders from the Red Sea Governorate in Hurghada. The crisis had arisen because the local governorate claimed the walls of the monastery have been constructed illegally and issued the police with orders to destroy them.
However, official permission to construct the walls was obtained in 1992 and they were built some four to five years ago, The Barnabas Fund said.
The latest attack have been linked by human rights activists to growing persecution of these and other Christian groups in Egypt.
