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Salafist Attacks in Egypt Raise Spectre of Further Violence

Attacks by Salafists in Egypt are escalating as they did in Tunisia. Even more ominous, reports Mohannad Sabry for Al-Monitor, they aren't being met with resistance by the new government as they once were under the Mubarak regime.
A police officer (R) tries to break up a scuffle between two Egyptian hardline Salafists and a Coptic Christian man (L) outside the courthouse in Cairo October 14, 2012, after the trial of Ahmed Mohamed Abdullah, known as Abu Islam. Abu Islam has been charged with burning the Bible in front of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo during a mass protest against a film insulting Islam's Prophet Mohamed. REUTERS Mohamed Abd El Ghany  (EGYPT - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS RELIGION)

CAIRO — Attacks by hard-line Salafist Muslims have raised concerns that Egypt may be in store for even more violence, similar to that witnessed this week in Tunisia.

Both Arab nations were ruled by ironfisted dictatorships for decades, led the Arab Spring and witnessed an unprecedented rise of Islamists to power.

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