Sectarian tensions are spiking in Egypt as the country rushes toward what are expected to be massive opposing June 30 rallies in favor and against the government of President Mohammed Morsi.

Several Shiite Muslims were beaten to death this week outside of Cairo. A video of the attack shows dozens of onlookers and at least one body being dragged through the streets.

About 3,000 angry villagers, including ultraconservative Salafis, surrounded the house of Shiite leader Hassan Shehata, threatening to set it on fire if 34 Shiites inside did not leave the village before the end of the day, according to the officials. When they refused, villagers attacked them, dragged them along the ground, and partially burned the house, the officials said.

Authorities subsequently arrested eight people over the incident, but Shiite leaders placed the blame squarely on the country’s Sunni Muslim Brotherhood-backed government.

The tension comes at a time of heightened political and economic insecurity in Egypt. Cairo’s Petroleum Minister Sherif Haddara reportedly acknowledged recently that Egypt may run out of fuel reserves within weeks.

The upcoming anti-government protests, set to culminate on the one-year anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration, are expected to begin on Thursday and expand throughout the country by Sunday.

There has been scattered political violence and the army – which effectively ran Egypt for decades before the 2011 revolution – warned it would step in to quell any unrest. The Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies see the opposition protests demanding that President Mohamed Morsi resign as an undemocratic attempt at a coup, since Morsi won the presidency through elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood has announced that, in order to ensure that its interests are secured, it will guard its facilities with its own members.

[Photo: Gigi Ibrahim / Flickr]