SEVERAL Coptic groups in Egypt announced during the week that they would join a demonstration after Friday prayers today, organised by the coalition of opposition parties, the National Salvation Front (NSF).

To mark the second anniversary of the start of the 25 January revolution that toppled the Hosni Mubarak regime, the protesters plan to hold a rally in Tahrir Square to denounce President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, and demand that the country's new constitution be rewritten.

The President-Bishop in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Most Revd Mouneer Anis, has asked for prayers during this anniversary period. He said that many people were planning demonstrations "because they feel that the goals of the revolution were not achieved. They are also concerned about the Islamisation of Egypt, and restrictions of freedom. Others will demonstrate in support of the government and President Morsi. I hope that these demonstrations will be peaceful and not progress into violence."

Besides worrying that the new constitution does not protect the rights of minority communities, Christians in Egypt are also concerned by continuing outbreaks of sectarian violence, and the failure of the security services to provide adequate protection for Christians.

In one of the latest incidents, four shops owned by Copts in the village of Marashda, in southern Egypt, were burned down last Friday by a crowd of Muslims who alleged that a shopkeeper had sexually assaulted a young girl. The crowd then held a protest outside a church, and began throwing stones at the building. The protesters eventually dispersed after police fired tear gas. Christians in the village strenuously denied the allegations made against the shopkeeper.

In another incident, widely reported in the Egyptian press, a large crowd, led by radical Islamists, attacked a recently completed building in the village of Fanous, south-west of Cairo, after a rumour spread that it was a new church. In fact, it was used as a meeting hall and nursery by the local Coptic community. The building had been constructed on land donated by a member of the congregation of the village church, St George's. Villagers said that security forces arrived only after the building had been destroyed.

The advocacy director at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Andrew Johnston, said that the incident at Fanous followed "a chronic pattern of injustice that has contributed to the emergence of a culture of impunity with regards to sectarian violence. Once again, a falsehood has been used to stoke religious sentiment, resulting in wanton destruction that the security services have failed to prevent."