Another Busy Month for Egypt/ians
By Sally Bishai (02/14/06)
Yes, welcome to the beginning of 2006.
A time when several “accidents” involving Egyptians and tourists have claimed many lives, a time when three Coptic girls have been kidnapped (in one week), and a time when a man-—in a Kafka-esque turn of fate—-has finally been released from prison, eight years after being locked up, despite a lack of formal charges against him.
To begin the round-up, two separate bus crashes have recently claimed the lives of tourists in Egypt; in the first, six Australians were killed, 26 others injured, in a January 11th crash that happened between Cairo and Alexandria. In the second crash, 14 from Hong Kong were killed, and more than 30 others injured, when a bus leaving Hurghada, bound for Luxor, turned over. The tour guide survived, but just barely. The bus was going around a corner (above the speed limit) when it overturned.
Then, at the beginning of February, a cruise ship carrying 1300 or so Egyptians and Saudis sunk, killing over 900 of them.
The reason I bring these tragedies up is because several Egyptians I’ve recently spoken with have wondered (out loud) whether these accidents were accidental. They seem to think that certain people—and parties—in Egypt would benefit from a lag in tourism in our nation.
Moving along to more outwardly sinister events, my faithful readers will, no doubt, remember the Odaysat riots last month, the ones where Muslim extremists in the small Egyptian village of Odaysat—which has a Coptic governor now, by the way—mucked up a Coptic church celebration, and ended up destroying property and killing Copts.
Next up, not one, but THREE Coptic girls have been documented as “kidnapped” this past week, actually—one from a dorm. Again, there is a debate on whether they ran away, were seduced, were actually kidnapped, or were trying to escape something or someone.
The final entry in this bad-news-roundup is a more positive thing—the release of a Copt from prison.
The reason I’ve included it here, however, is because he apparently was taken into custody at New York’s JFK airport eight years back—-and charged with nothing!
Sameh Khouzam was an asylum-seeker from Egypt who wasn’t convicted of a crime, yet WAS detained in the Bergen County (NJ) prison for seven years and 361 days.
Some claim that he was wanted for murder in Egypt, but if this is the case, why would he be jailed in the States?
This kind-of reminds me of the case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was picked up in JFK on his way back from the Middle East, where he was on holiday.
Arar, whose situation my friend Sam enlightened me to several years ago, was thrown in a Syrian prison—even though he was holding a Canadian passport!
At any rate, I am too disheartened to continue this Who’s Who of tragic happenings in the Middle East this month, but for my next column, watch out! I will be presenting a revision of my “Top 10 of the Past 12 in Egypt,” so be sure to check back here.. same bat-time, same bat-channel..!
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