The US State Department has criticised the arrest of a group of activists and bloggers in Egypt who attempted to visit the town of Naga Hammadi and offer condolences over the killing of six Christians and a Muslim security guard. It said in a statementissued on Saturday:

The United States is deeply concerned by today’s arrests of individuals travelling to the Egyptian town of Naga Hammadi to express support for those tragically killed and injured during Coptic Christmas celebrations on January 7. According to publicly available evidence, those arrested included bloggers, democracy and religious freedom advocates.

We call on the Government of Egypt to uphold the rights of all to peacefully express their political views and desires for universal freedoms and to ensure due process for those detained.

The group have since been released but the question remains: why were they arrested in the first place? The Bikya Masr websitepoints out that they were by no means the only ones to offer condolences:

Over the following week [after the shootings], representatives of reputable religious institutions such as the Sheikh of al-Azhar and Minister of Awqaf; TV and Cinema stars; respectable public figures, and government officials travelled to Nag Hammadi to console the families of the victims and help in cooling down the anger of the Coptic community there. Bloggers, civil rights and political young activists wanted to do something too.

Possibly the explanation is that while official visits by dignitaries are OK, the authorities don't want independent initiatives of this kind by ordinary citizens. 

The Kashf blog has some photos taken on a mobile phone by Amira el-Tahawi, one of the activists, while she was in detention.

Meanwhile, blogger Zeinobia – who has been sceptical of reports that the shootings were a reprisal for the rape of a Muslim girl – 
refers to a claim that the attackers had been demanding money from the church as part of a protection racket.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 18 January 2010.