Even videos taken on cell phones have become a source of new tensions in the already difficult relationship between Christians and Muslims in traditionalist 'Upper Egypt',
the southern part of the country. Sparking the new inter-religious violence in a society where religious fanaticism is wide spread on both sides, now cheap Chinese cell phones than can capture young women not paying attention to their privacy in intimate moments. But with large family that want to revenge the affront immediately. The most serious case, among those reported today in The Egyptian Gazette, is the one that ended tragically in Assuit where a Christian showed a video of a young Muslim being too affectionate with her fiancé. Three people were killed after hundreds of angry Muslim threw stones at the houses and stores of Christians and set fire to their cars. Similar reactions happened after a young Copt near Dairut showed a video of another Muslim girl. When the parents of the girl found out they nearly killed the Copt and several people were injured in the violence. Between two villages there was nearly a war on the first day of festivities celebrating the end of Ramadan, says the newspaper, when a young Christian dared to photograph a girl who had taken off her veil. Her parents were furious and wanted to punish the boy but when the boys parents refused to turn him over, according to police reports, public disorder exploded. The boys parents offered to pay 10,000 Egyptian lira (about 1,300 euros) in damages to the girls parents. Yet another incident, the attacks, including about twenty stores and vehicles set on fire, happened after a Christian merchant accused a woman of stealing a cell phone and hiding it under her niqab, ripping off her face veil. Even if there were no cell phones, the Muslims and Copts would still fight, Copt lawyer Mamdouh Nakhla told ANSA. Its now twenty years that Ive worked on the relationship between the two religions in Egypt. In the past the situation was not so tense, but in the last ten years a climate of violence has been created especially in the saiid. Both side suspects the other, everyone hunts the other to attack for the slightest mistake. For example, continued the expert, Christian women in Assiout were forced to cover their hair to having dared to walk on the street without a veil. And the stores that sell alcohol were forced to close by threats to the owners and continuous attacks on their warehouses. A climate of intolerance and inter-religious violence that brings to mind the recent film, "Hassan&Morcos" with Omar Sharif and the popular Egyptian actor Adel Imam, and, concludes Nakhlam it continues to get worse