Fam Khalaf, 27-year old cousin of a priest in Minya, was stabbed and killed by a mob of Muslims on Sunday night, the Associated Press reported. What started as a personal dispute between four Muslims and the father of a priest escalated when the four mobilized a mob to fight “on the basis that this was a fight with a Coptic man,” according to Mada Masr, citing Ishak Ibrahim from the Egyptian Initiative of Personal Rights. The incident comes at a time of an increasing number of sectarian attacks in Egypt, often linked to rumors of church construction, as well as the continuation of the state’s policies to conduct informal reconciliations rather than resort to a formal legal process. Informal reconciliations put Christians who are attacked at a disadvantage, and the result mediation is often that the attacked Christians are forced to leave their homes. “The few incidents that ended up in court were dismissed because of lack of evidence and such,” Ishak said.