Recently Egypt’s Shura Council legislative committee approved a restructuring of the voting districts in Qena. Parliamentarians and members of the council, Ramy Lakah, a Christian, and Tarek al-Mahdi, from the Nour Salafi party, got into a verbal exchange that almost escalated to physical violence when Lakah wasn’t happy with the decision which apparently could be interpreted as marginalizing the nation’s Christian populations. Al-Mahdi accused Lakah of “inserting the Copts in all issues” to which Lakah responded by saying that this is “his point of view” and he is free to make it. The two exchanged a few more jabs, before Lakah was escorted out of the meeting by other Parliamentarians to prevent the situation from escalating into violence.
Summarized by Coptic Solidarity; originally published by In Cairo