1,500 Muslim villagers brandishing swords and knives trap two nuns inside a guesthouse

One hospitalized for breakdown after sword-wielding Muslims converge.
CAIRO, Egypt
March 16, 2012

(CDN) — 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 last week and threatened to burn them out.

The next day, the assailants frightened children at the school; attendance has since dropped by more than a third.

Accusing the nuns of building a church at the site, the throng on March 4 chanted Islamic slogans as they surrounded the guesthouse of a privately run, public school in the village of Abu Al-Reesh, in Aswan Province. Two nuns, volunteer teachers at Notre Dame Language Schools, barricaded themselves into the school’s guesthouse for about eight hours.

The women were “terrified,” said Magdy Melad, director of the school. the rest

“When we tried to get them out, they refused to let them out, and they wanted to burn them alive in the guesthouse,” Garas said.