But Egypt is no stranger to religious conflict. Outbreaks of Muslim-Coptic Christian violence have been reported over the years – sometimes with deadly consequences – and indeed, several clashes have taken place in recent weeks.
Nevertheless, Egyptians express their worry that the kind of violence they see on TV news channels in reports from Iraq and Lebanon is now happening in their own neighborhoods.
The view is backed up by a report from Washington-based Refugees International that this North African country has newly begun to witness outbreaks of sectarian violence along Sunni-Shiite lines.
More than 2 million Iraqis have sought refuge beyond their borders since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and Egypt was a major destination until it closed its own borders to Iraqi refugees last year.
However, among Iraqis already inside Egypt Sunni-Shiite animosity is reportedly growing.
"This idea of Sunni versus Shiite did not exist before the Americans came to Iraq," a Cairo-based Iraqi official from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization told Middle East Times on condition of anonymity due to security risks.
She likened the situation to Rwanda's colonial period when Belgian authorities pronounced the distinction between two groups in the country.
"And we know what devastating effects that had on Rwanda. Now, in Iraq and more and more so in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, we are seeing sectarianism raise its ugly face for all to see," she said.
She related that in Baghdad during her youth there was no reference among neighbors of others' sectarian affiliations. Only after the U.S. invasion of Iraq when civil strife broke out did she get to know that the street in which she grew up was home to Shiites, Sunnis, Jews and Christians.
From her new vantage point in Egypt, the U.N. official made a pertinent observation: "Animosity toward another does not end when citizens leave their country. In fact, it grows."
In Egypt, the Iraqi community can be characterized by a pro- and anti- U.S. divide. And this has led to some minor conflicts in restaurants and cafes.
"I love [U.S. President George W.] Bush," said Abbas, a young Iraqi now living in Cairo. "He is the person who saved our country and I don't care what people say. It has been for the better."
Abbas said that an argument erupted at an Iraqi-owned café in Nasr City, a Cairo suburb, earlier this year that highlights the divide among the displaced citizens.
"We started talking politics, which we all do," he began. "And then someone said something about how America was responsible for all our troubles and the fighting in our country. One guy hit another and a big brawl broke out."
Nobody reported any major injuries from this incident, but it shows that not all is well within the Iraqi diaspora.
One Egyptian shopkeeper in a Cairo neighborhood with an Iraqi community spoke of his own concerns: "I am worried that because prices are high in Egypt and Iraqis don't have much money, they may sooner or later vent their frustration by becoming violent," said Ahmed.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson Abeer Etafa had a similar observation to make: "It is a sad situation for Iraqi refugees. They are running out of resources and work opportunities and are very limited here, as they are in Syria and Jordan."
She said that some Iraqis in Egypt are also worried for their own security. Some have reported discriminatory name calling and others have received death threats, she said.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak did not help their integration and quell their worries when in 2006 he spoke on Sunni-Shiite relations claiming that all Shiites are "more loyal to Iran than the Arab states [in which] they live."
These comments sparked the ire of the Iraqi community in Egypt, who feel they are being treated as an underclass in the country.
"We have come here to escape a war and violence based on who we are as people, but the situation here is turning against us," said an Iraqi Shiite café owner. "The government doesn't believe that we are Arab because we are Shiite, and many Egyptians I talk to say how Shiites cannot be trusted and that war is coming [to Egypt]."
Dina Ahmed, 38, a Egyptian single mother who works as a babysitter for an Iraqi family next door told of her observations.
"We [Egyptians] are worried because we see their anger," she said. "They are angry with one another, because their country is not theirs any longer and because the lives they thought they would have here in Egypt are not turning out well.
For now, tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and their Egyptian hosts are at a simmering level; but at the back of their minds many people are worried by the potential threat of sectarian violence in Egypt.