Muslim-Christian relations

So my new job is working for an organization which studies Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt. I am copy-editing countless articles going into the Arab West Report about this subject. It seems on one hand somewhat grim, with countless rumors being perpetuated throughout Egypt leading to violence or rumors of violence, leading to convictions that there is a religious battle going on leading to more violence. But at the same time, most Egyptians deny a problem in this area, saying that Muslims and Christians get along fine. However, most Egyptians means Muslims. Almost all Christians will tell you there is some sort of strife between the two religious groups. However, peace, forgiveness, and sound judgment of incidents in Egypt is being called for by almost all Egyptians.

Here's part of of the translation / summary of one of my favorite articles I edited, highlighting some of the issues surrounding conversion in Egypt, that is also pretty funny:

"Hishām Nājī Nazīr had filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court, demanding cancellation of the decision of his conversion to Islam. He mentioned that he had a disagreement with his wife and that he threatened her that he would convert to Islam. The same day, he went to the fatwa committee of the Azhar and he found himself receiving a certificate indicating that he had become a Muslim. Nazīr said that he is still Christian and goes to church.

Nazīr alleged that the declaration made that he had converted to Islam should be considered a misuse of power, as the fatwa committee did not ask him about the reasons for his conversion. Also, no medical investigations were performed to investigate if he was drunk. Nazīr said that Article 49 of the State Council Law 47 of 1972 stipulates that the court may rule cancellation..."

Also on this subject, a recent somewhat discouraging conversation I've had:

This girl says she can tell by looking at someone that they are ugly and without peace, and therefore they are Muslim. All of them are bad, she says. “All of them?” I ask incredulously. Yes, she confirms, all Muslims are bad. They take girls. Muslim boys are paid by Sheiks to take Christian girls. "The ones with the beards", they’ll pay five thousand pounds and tell you are very clever if you take a Christian girl. I somehow doubt this is true.

“This happens a lot?” I ask

“Yes a lot” she says.

I remember studying this phenomenon in Anthropology of Religion class. The Satanic Panic of the 80s was like this, pagans supposedly taking all the children and brainwashing them. Before that, Christians alleged that Jews were taking their children and eating them, sucking their blood for sacrifice. And yet do these stories do well by children? To keep them thinking that their group of people is the best? That any other idea or group of people must be avoided because of the terrible danger they will be in otherwise. Perhaps the only way that parents can achieve this aim of isolation is by perpetuating, and believing themselves most likely, the rumors of things to be irrationally feared. Fear gives you an excuse, and consuming fear is the thing that could keep good people from making good progress. Fear is the most powerful tool for evil and for stagnancy that I have seen.

“There have to be good Muslims, right?” I ask, she answers that there are maybe a few, but very few. “Was it better before?” I ask, and she recounts what her parents have said about the time before her when there was no Net, no mobiles, and people were better towards each other. But Muslims weren't ever really that good. She agrees that people in Egypt say there is a lot of love between Muslims and Christians, but these are empty words, its not in their hearts.

This saddens me because I have seen a lot of love transcending religious lines in Egypt, and I have met beautiful, peaceful, loving people, Muslim and Christian. However, I am lucky. Because I am a foreigner I don't have the Egyptian predetermined categories or fears or prejudices that I have grown up with (although I have my own set), and I don't have a place in this society. This is when being a social floater is a good thing. I don't have to choose a side just yet.