By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
CAIRO, EGYPT (Worthy News)-- Earlier this month, government security forces launched a major operation to cripple a coalition of Muslim gangs that have been brazenly preying on the Christian community in Egypt's Assiut province, according to Barnabas Aid.
Egyptian security eventually dismantled a massive Islamic organized crime network that was conducting a campaign of kidnappings, robberies, threats and extortions against local Christians.
An anonymous bishop in Assiut said the government's operation was a turning point in its previous police policy towards Muslim-on-Christian crime.
"For months and months, [Christian] families and entire communities in Assiut and the province have lived in anguish. Kidnappings took place every day ... The perpetrators of these crimes were known to all, but when the [Christians] claimed and reported them to the security forces, nothing happened."
Christian communities across Egypt all came under attack during the ouster of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last July. But before he was forced from office, Morsi blamed Egypt's Christians for the populist movement that led to his downfall.