Dozens of churches, homes and businesses have been set alight and looted in Egypt, forcing millions of Christians into hiding amid the worst bout of sectarian violence in the country’s modern history.

Some Coptic Christian communities are being made to pay bribes as local Islamists exploit the turmoil by seeking to revive a seventh-century tax, called jizya, levied on non-Muslims.

The main Saint Virgin Mary church in the village of Nazla, in Fayoum, southwest of the capital, should be a hive of activity on a weekend afternoon. However, the 15ft (4.6m) iron gates are padlocked, the street is deserted and scorched earth surrounds the area’s most important church, now a burnt-out shell with smashed windows. Employees are afraid to leave their homes.

Mina, not