Re: OT: Al Ahram
The Brits and the French "made up" because they had common enemies. The Russians, the Germans, etc. Europe as a whole has been decidely violent and fractious from the Medieval period right down to the present day. It was only the overwhelmingly huge confrontation between the US/NATO and USSR/Warsaw Pact that seemed to settle things for a while by polarizing Europe. As soon as the 'Cold War' ended Europe started resuming its nationalistic ways with the disintegration of Yugoslavia and some pretty strong resistance to further integration of the EU. While it doesn't look like it's going to come apart, it also doesn't look like any nation wants to give up its individual identity and sovereignity to the 'super state'. (The Crusades had a similar effect to the Cold War -- temporary suppression of local conflicts in favor of a larger one.)
And in the 'Islamic World' there are also plenty of rivalries and outright hatreds. Arabs and Persians actually have a history of quite a bit of strife, for example. Saddam was trying to exploit that with his attack on Iran in the 80s. He was hoping to rally other Arab nations to join up with him. There are all sorts of ethnicities in North Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia that hate each other even though they are all 'Islamic' (and then there is the Hindu-Muslim tension in India itself). But just like 'Christian' Europe, the 'Islamic world' would also occasionally unite to fight a common enemy.
It's not that 'Christianity' and 'Islam' are inherently enemies. It is that people in general tend to need an enemy of some sort. The two largest religions of the world happen to have originated from nearly the same place and are located in adjacent regions, so they naturally come to strife now and then. We just tend to remember the larger 'epic' conflicts and forget the common strife between close neighbors.
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