REPORTER: Matthew Carney

This is a picture of religious harmony. Half a million people have come from all over Egypt to the country`s most venerated monastery, Al Muarraq. They`re celebrating with a 10-day feast to honour the Virgin Mary. This monastery is revered as the place where the holy family came to seek refuge from Herod, the Roman governor who wanted baby Jesus killed. The family stayed six months at this site, and it`s believed Jesus Christ consecrated the first Christian altar here. The Coptic Christians of Egypt considered this place a second Jerusalem.

CHRISTIAN PILGRIM 1 (Translation) We feel joy when we visit these holy places where Lord Jesus stayed for six months.

CHRISTIAN PILGRIM 2 (Translation): We feel happy and secure out of love for the Virgin Mary. The miracles she works bring us here. We`d do anything for her.

Even Egypt`s Muslims have joined the pilgrimage. In fact, a quarter of all visitors are Muslims. In the Koran, both Jesus and the Virgin Mary are both sanctified.

MUSLIM PILGRIM (Translation): There`s a feeling of brotherhood between Christians and Muslims. We feel in awe because it`s a religious and holy place.

For three hours every night, the monks at Al Muharraq chant their prayers in a ritual that`s 1,000 years old. But now the monastery is at the centre of a controversy that is threatening Egypt`s religious unity. A former monk, Adel Saadallah Gabriel, is accused of desecrating this holiest of places by having a string of sexual affairs with married women. What has brought Egypt to the brink is the publication of the monk`s deeds for all to see. By any tabloid standards, it was a big spread. Splashed across three pages with headlines like, "Monk turns monastery into whorehouse." And, "Miracle monk has sex with 5,000 women." The allegations struck at the core of Coptic Christianity. According to the church`s spokesperson, Bishop You`annes.

BISHOP YOU`ANNES, COPTIC CHURCH (Translation): Because this time Christians weren`t personally insulted, but the honour of their holy sanctuary was. I always give this example. There`s a difference between insulting someone`s honour and insulting the honour of their holy sanctuary as well. That was very bad. Very bad.

LAYLA TACKLER, FORMER COPTIC MP: That incident is a very, very, very ugly incident. One of the worst we ever had in Egypt, maybe throughout its history and definitely during our lives.

The reaction against the publication of the articles was swift and unprecedented. 10,000 Copts came out onto the streets of Cairo to vent their rage. Describing their holiest of places as a `whorehouse` was too much, and protesters believed the Government was responsible for their humiliation because it allowed the publication of the article in the first place.

PROTESTER (Translation): Because of this incident, Christian girls, our sisters, our wives and our mothers, walking down the street...they`re being gossiped about and insulted. It has gone as far as spitting on them...as far as forcing a girl to get off public transport and calling her an adulteress.

The anger was explosive. The demonstrations went on for three days and left 70 injured. The police were barely able to contain the protesters. Cairo is still tense. The unrest has highlighted years of frustration and discrimination against the Copts by Egyptian Muslims. It also unleashed anger about the Koseh massacre of January last year, when the Muslim killer of 20 Copts received light sentences. For many, the `Al Nabaa` article, published at the behest of editor Mahmoud Mahran was the last straw.

PROTESTER (Translation): Whatever happens to Mahran, it won`t satisfy the Copts. What would satisfy the Copts is getting their full rights. People didn`t come here only because of Mahran. They came because of El Kosheh incidents, El Khanka, El Zawya, and because of the daily provocation of the Copts. Also, the police don`t consider our complaints. In short, just in one sentence, what would satisfy the Copts now is for them to be regarded as first-class citizens.

The protesters demanded action, and the State, realising the threat to national unity was real, gave it to them. The paper has been closed down and the editor has been put on trial, charged with undermining public order, inciting hatred and publishing pornographic pictures. The church does not deny the former monk committed the acts, but says they occurred only after he was expelled from the Coptic Church in 1996 for financial and disciplinary matters. The editor did get the facts wrong and the State is likely to give Mr Mahran a lengthy jail sentence so that anger can be quelled and civil peace restored.

BISHOP YOU`ANNES, COPTIC CHURCH (Translation): All the people took a stand, and it came from the heart. They all condemned this incident. And that is good. We`re happy about that. But I have to say the judicial system is important. Words alone aren`t enough. We need actions.

The Copts have sought strength and solace from their patron St Mark, who was martyred for spreading the word of Jesus Christ in the first century. This latest incident has inflamed tensions between the Copts, who number about 6 million, or 10% of the population, and the Muslim majority of 55 million. But the Copts` story is not the usual tale of a persecuted minority. With the coming of Islam in the 7th century, many Copts converted and the two religions co-existed for centuries. Together fighting off the Crusaders from Europe and freeing their country from their British colonial masters. It`s only in recent years that the Coptic community has felt marginalised according to prominent Coptic intellectual Milad Hanna.

MILAD HANNA, COPTIC INTELLECTUAL: The Copts as a minority, they are a unique minority, because their grassroots are here in Egypt, therefore, they`re proud of being Egyptian. Their grievances are very minimal and they are one of the luckiest communities as minorities. Nevertheless, there are some type of discrimination, for example in jobs, in senior posts in the Government.

The Copts have suffered violence, not from the Government, but at the hand of Islamic fundamentalists. The Christians see the release of the pornographic material as part of an ongoing Islamic campaign to humiliate them. The Copts are at one with the government, which has curbed fundamentalist activities and placed many fundamentalist leaders in jail.

LAYLA TACKLER, FORMER COPTIC MP: Their target is to topple the whole regime and therefore they tried in many ways by attacking the tourists, by attacking the police, by attacking the President himself, by attacking some ministers, by killing three or four of our thinkers and, of course, the religious subject, being a sensitive one, they knew that if they penetrate through that, they will create commotion, and they did.

But the underlying cause of the demonstrations is economic hardship. As a community, the Copts have lost power and wealth. In 1960, before President Nasser`s Arab socialist revolution, they made up 20% of the population and controlled half of Egypt`s wealth. Today, much of the community is economically and politically deprived.

Rasmisa Gaad`s story is typical. She lives in the outer suburbs of Cairo in this 3-room house with her five children and sick husband. She struggles to survive on $50 a month.

RASMISA GAAD (Translation): As for the electricity and water, we steal our supply.

Rasmisa wants the best for her children, but it`s unlikely they`ll be able to break out of the poverty into which they`ve been born.

RASMISA GAAD: I`d like to see my children comfortable and well. Two of my children are at school. I`d like them to be well and successful.

And the Copts have no vehicle to criticise the Government. President Mubarak does not tolerate dissenting views, so the Church becomes the only mean to vent their frustrations.

LAYLA TACKLER: They are an expression of the anger which is boiling in the hearts of many people, especially the young - due to unemployment, to the problem of housing, to the fact that they feel they don`t have a chance because there aren`t enough projects to keep them busy and for production. Prices are getting higher, the burden of taxation.

MILAD HANNA: Now, there is nobody with any significance in Egypt who is a Copt. Even the ministers, they`re second-class ministers. They are irrelevant. You don`t go to them and if you go to them they will tell you "Egypt is a wonderful state and it`s excellent." They are never able to make any critique to the Government, otherwise they will be repressed.

But it`s about time the Egyptian Government started to listen. Observers fear if there is no real political and economic change, further unrest is inevitable.

MILAD HANNA: If the parameters of the problem are the same, if the community conditions are the same, the economic conditions are the same, the political system is the same and it`s producing frustration with the Copt community, their frustration will get repeated. Therefore, I`ve said this very present situation has produced frustration and I`m sure within less than six months you will be coming to me again with another further incident.

The Church sees it differently. It feels the demonstrations sent a powerful enough message for the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure the Copts are not humiliated like this again.

BISHOP YOU`ANNES: And I don`t think that this last event will be repeated. I don`t think. I think that the government took a very good lesson. And they didn`t expect this reaction, this Coptic reaction until the end. They didn`t expect.