A Story: Nepotism And Religious Persecution In Egypt

One of the sadder stories about Egypt.

Within Egypt you'll find all the drawbacks of a third world country. Some of those drawbacks include bold faced nepotism, cold hearted religious persecution and mind numbing bureaucratic backwardness. Naturally the following story contains all three.

I have a Christian friend in Egypt whose cousin was a police officer determined to become a detective. We will refer to my friends cousin as "Hany". Hany was lucky enough to know people who could help make his dream come true. The proper arrangements were made and Hany was entered into the training program for detectives among several other candidates with Hany being the only Christian among them.

The tests included a shooting range like you see in the movies called a "hogans alley", basically you walk through a practice field and shoot at moving targets. Hany performed the test perfectly but another officer was not as skilled and an accident occurred. While performing the test in the shooting range this other officer accidentally shot and killed the commanding officer. You're not going to believe me but I swear to God the guy who accidentally shot the commander happened to be a second cousin to Suzanne Mubarak, the Presidents wife.

So what do you do when the Presidents cousin-in law kills a high ranking officer? Falsify the official report and blame someone else of course! Who was that someone else? Hany, the groups only Christian and highest scoring officer. Hany wasn't put in jail though, instead they expelled him from the training camp and fired him from the police department. Hany's family feared revenge from the police so Hany's cousin arranged a visa for him to leave Egypt for Australia.

Problem solved right? No, because of Hany's training as a detective the Egyptian Government refused to let him leave the country for a minimum of 10 years so that he might forget all the "secure information" he had learned as a matter of national security. As if the Australians are dying to get their hands on Egyptian police training techniques. So what is Hany doing now? He fell into a depression, forced his wife and kids out of their home and now spends his days drinking and smoking hash. He never leaves the house and refuses to see any of his family members. Last I checked he was absent at his sisters wedding because he didn't want to face the family. Poor guy, mostly for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.