WASHINGTON — Hundreds of Egyptian Christians and Muslims gathered in the nationʼs capital on Aug. 22 to protest the acts of violence perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters against minorities — particularly Coptic Christians — in Egypt.

“You can burn down our churches, but you can never touch our faith,” one protester said at the march.

“Burning 100 churches is terrorism, not Morsi legitimacy,” said another.

Violence erupted in Egypt after the interim government’s security forces broke up camps of protesters allied with the Muslim Brotherhood on Aug. 14. The protesters had been demanding that former President Mohammed Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, be returned to power. The Egyptian military had removed Morsi from office last month in response to a popular uprising where millions of Egyptians took to the streets demanding Morsi leave office.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the violent clashes that have followed. Coptic Christians — who make up 10% of Egyptʼs 84 million people — have been particularly targeted in attacks attributed to terrorists affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

More than 60 churches have been attacked, along with numerous homes, businesses and institutions owned by Christians.

The protests in downtown Washington were held in response to the violence.

Atef Jacoub of Coptic Solidarity, who helped organize the event, told CNA that some 500 Muslims and Christians from across the country participated in the march “in support of the interim government in Egypt.”

The march route began at the White House, taking protesters past The Washington Post offices and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Jacoub said that the regime under Morsi had treated the Coptic Christian community poorly.

“Many Coptic persons were killed” by Morsiʼs government and by Morsiʼs followers after his ousting, Jacoub said. The Muslim Brotherhood and other supporters of the Morsi presidency “abuse the Christian community much more than the regular Egyptian community,” he added.

Michael Hanna, a Coptic Christian who attended the march, said he joined the protest because “I am against terrorism.”

“Copts like me are here today,” he said, because some “68 churches have been burnt,” and in the wake of the violence, “they feel like Christians are targets.”

Hanna added that if governments “play a democratic game, you have to respect all rules of the democratic game,” and that means respect for the dignity and rights of all persons.

Suzanne El Nahel, another protester at the march, echoed Hanna’s comments.

“To rule as a democracy, you have to respect minorities — whether they are Muslims, Christians or any other faction,” she said. El Nahel noted that members of “the Muslim Brotherhood burned Coptic churches, Catholic churches, evangelical churches in Egypt.”

She said, “We cannot live like that in Egypt.”