The Copts in Egypt have been in a difficult situation for a while now - at least, the ones in the smaller cities and the rural areas in the south, I think in Cairo and the north they're doing okay. It's a chilling illustration of how people turn against the minorities time and again, even when the minorities are really not that different (certainly, they're Christian, but their language is the same, many of their customs are the same, they're just as conservative). And also a chilling illustration of how having good laws is one thing, but fairly acting on them is something else entirely. As the article indicates, the laws to bring them to justice are there, but when the witnesses are intimidated, and the prosecution intentionally presents weak cases, it's not a big surprise that the culprits get off lightly - like in some mafia trials in the past, in the US or Italy. The police needs to step up here and make sure that witnesses can testify without fearing for their lives.

I would really like to see some evidence about this claim of the sharia defending Muslims killing non-Muslims, though - and stating that the sharia considers Christians to be polytheists is just flat out wrong.