What your friends say and what the historical record shows are two very different things.
You need to read a few books on the history of Egypt. There was NO such tradition there until the Islamic invasion. Egypt is one of the few countries that we have clear written historical records of what it was like before and after the Islamic terror.
I am sorry but you are wrong just as you are wrong about their views on sodomy. They regard that as grown man and grown man. Man and boy (what the degenerate west regards as child molestation and disgusting) is just fine.
The famous poem of "a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou" is actually "a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and a pretty boy"
The Mamluks-in-training, in fact, were cut off from all contact with women in their teen years and the boys were encouraged to, well, you know, with each other and their trainers.
a.cricket