Coptic Christians go nuts in Egypt?

You’d think that, after reading this article from the AP.  The story left me with more questions than answers.  The whole flavor seemed to suggest that these folks were rioting, destroying property, and threatening officials even though Christians typically live in peace with the Muslim majority.  They complain about discrimination, but without one shred of documentation the AP report insists they usually live in peace apart from “occasional flare-ups of tension and violence.”  What’s that mean?  How occasional?  And is it the Coptics who do the mischief, or the dominant Muslim majority? 

Later, after mentioning the Church officials were not available to comment, the piece points out that officials are hesitant to approve permits for churches.  Churches get around this by applying for permits for Christian centers.  Apparently, based on anonymous government sources, this is what happened here.  The next paragraph does inform us that human rights groups say violence against the Christians in Egypt is on the rise. A representative from a Geneva rights group insists that discrimination is prevalent in Egypt.  The article then ends with a non-referenced quote that the government insists Christians have the same rights as Muslims.  How does any of this square with the AP statement that they usually live all hunky-dory in Egypt?

WTH?  So the entire first part of the article gives the impression of Coptic Christians going bat nuts and smashing car windows and trying to storm the government, with police trying to keep them at bay.  Then the rest of the article more or less paints an entirely different picture, one that the AP appeared to have missed even though it published the piece.