CAIRO - Looking back at 2010, we notice that riots between Egypt's Muslims and Christians erupted over and over again. There were a number of victims and many arrests on both sides. However, contemplating on the issue, analysts present some unexpected opinions about the reasons for these clashes, as well as the prospects for similar clashes in the future. "The media have played a terrible role, disturbing the peace of Egyptian Muslims and Christians," says Ammar Ali Hassan, the head of the research department in the official Middle East News Agency, confirming that Egyptians have far more in common than any sectarian differences. "Our ethnicity, common heritage, geographic diversity and the fear of fitna [sectarian division] have united all Egyptians for centuries. It's just that some religious scholars from both sides misuse their psychological influence," he told the Egyptian Mail in an interview. The majority of clashes between the two sides have erupted over of building or rebuilding churches, usually without the necessary licences. Last March, more than 30 people were injured in a sectarian riot in Matrouh Governorate in western Egypt. The fighting reportedly started when Muslim residents threw stones at Christian construction workers who were building a fence around a lot owned by the El-Shahideen Church. The rioters thought the labourers were blocking off the site to build a new church; the workers say they were actually building a fence around a hospice. Rioters say they were also upset that a public street was blocked off for the construction. More than 400 people got involved in the fighting, and some of the rioters started fires; 31 people were eventually taken to hospital, and 20 were arrested, both Muslims and Copts. While some scholars and governmental spokesmen stress that the lack of official approvals and permissions for building churches is the reason behind such clashes, Coptic activists say that discrimination against Christians is the real reason. "We are living under a fanatic bureaucratic system. Just to fix a church window, you need permission from the Government. If you want to build a mosque you can get permission in no time," says Emad Gad, of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. The Coptic community says authorities in Egypt are reluctant to approve permits to build churches, which they say they need to accommodate growing numbers of worshippers. "This injustice is the reason behind these clashes. If the Government becomes fairer such issues will disappear," Gad told this newspaper. One way to evade the rules is to obtain permits for Christian service centres, which they then turn to churches. Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces arrested 59 Muslims last May, on suspicion of setting fire to Christian homes and shops in clashes over church construction that underlined lingering sectarian tensions. Prosecutors ordered the arrests after taking the testimony of 10 Coptic Christians who were hurt in the clashes in the village of Behma, about 60km (40 miles) south of Cairo, in which hundreds of people from both faiths fought with sticks and hurled bricks and firebombs at one another. The 59 Muslims were charged with arson and with spreading sectarian strife. Security sources said an unspecified additional number of Muslim villagers were being held without charge pending investigation. No Christians were being held. Police intervened to stop the clashes and sealed off the village. At least 27 Christian-owned houses and shops were damaged by fire, including 10 homes that were completely gutted. Another recent example of such clashes over building churches happened last month, when hundreds of Christians smashed cars and windows and tried to assault a municipal building in Giza after police violently stopped the construction of a church, leaving one person dead and underscoring Egypt's serious sectarian tensions. Police clashed with Christians first at the church construction site in the early hours of the morning and then several hours later, when a mob of hundreds assaulted the Giza Governor's office in retaliation. The slain Christian was shot in the thigh and died after arriving at a nearby hospital, while 68 people were injured in the clashes and 133 were arrested. Two priests were summoned by the Prosecutor General for interrogation. Coptic Christians make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 80 million. They complain frequently of discrimination, though they generally live in peace with the Muslim majority with occasional flare-ups of tension and violence, especially over limits on church building. Affairs of the heart Other incidents have been caused by relationships between couples of different faiths. The most widely publicised such incident happened last July, when a Coptic woman named Camelia Shehata unwittingly became the focal point in this religious clash. Camelia, wife of Father Tedaos Samaan, a parish priest in Deir Mawas, in Minya, Upper Egypt, disappeared on July 19. This resulted in Coptic demonstrations against State Security for refusing to help her husband find her. In the meantime, a lot of demonstrations were held by Egyptians calling for the Coptic Orthodox Church to free Camelia after rumours that she had converted to Islam before being detained by the Church. "This is not a religious or faith-related clash. It's rather a political one," says Selim el-Awaa, a prominent Egyptian scholar. "Egypt has never been a sectarian country, but using religion in political propaganda results in such clashes." Egypt suffered its worst Christian-Muslim clashes in decades in 1999, when 20 Christians were killed, 22 people injured and scores of shops destroyed in sectarian strife in the Upper Egyptian village of Kosheh. This February, Muslims set fire to Christian-owned shops in the Upper Egyptian Governorate of Luxor after hearing rumours of a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Coptic man. Last year, a 45-year-old Muslim man stabbed a Coptic man to death and wounded five others in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, sparking three days of sectarian clashes in which one Muslim was killed. Officials say the attacker was mentally ill. El-Awaa is optimistic about the future in Egypt, in terms of sectarian clashes, as he sees these clashes as individual incidents that happen by chance. But he also stresses that it's vital for wise scholars, both Muslim and Christian, to intervene. "The situation is containable now, but real efforts should be exerted to ensure that such individual incidents don't fester for many years, developing into deep-rooted crises between Egyptians," el-Awaa stresses.
