Terrorist Attack Survivor Speaks

In July 2005 exactly the 23rd I was in Sharm el-Sheikh the Egyptian holiday destination city located on the southern tip of Sinai peninsula, I was staying at a friend who lives permanently in Sharm and owns couple of shops and a lovely apartment  in a holiday village called Delta, my friend, Sara and her Fiance Ahmed who is half Egyptian half American have been very welcoming to me with my frequent visits and my lifestyle that they enjoy being a part of while I am staying with them, when you are so young such as I was there is enough energy to party all night long and move from a restaurant to a club to another club til the morning light attacks the brilliance of the dark night life.

In this particular day, Ahmed who was the marketing manager to the only Russian club back then called "Back To The U.S.S.R" head to work and me and Sara went to TGI Fridays located in Marina or as known locally Neama Bay for dinner to start our night and by 11:00 pm we headed to "The Camel" bar where we had couple of drinks and we were waiting for the major club in the town to open , Pasha club with its exotic Russian dancers and up to date house music, we left Camel bar and decided to walk down the town centre "Neama Bay" where all the restaurant, cafes, bars and clubs.

The scene was the usual scene of nightlife in Sharm el-Sheikh, the main street is crowded with all nationalities, you can make out where they are from the way they dress, socialize and walk, Russian girls everywhere looking as sexy as they can ever try to be, Italians with their dark tan and elegant clothing walking in pride in large groups, British groups crowding all the Irish bars marked by the football flags, Norwegians dead loud, etc...

Sharm el-Sheikh back then was a multicultural happy spot on a map of differences, one of the best holiday destinations in the whole wide world, such a happy place.

When I started to walk with my friend Sara down Neama Bay we heard a massive bang, it got everyone curious, everyone was of the restaurant, bars, cafes and clubs and standing in the street talking and questioning what was this bang about, since it was so loud we, the locals, thought it was the water station near buy about 400 meter away, we thought it is a gas explosion but we seen the fume and the smoke coming from the direction of the old market "The old town" or the bazaar as so many call it, it was a little bit weird but a terrorist  never really crossed our mind, I decided to go and buy a small bottle of water from the nearby supermarket called el-sheikh Abdallah and just couple of meters away from the supermarket there was a massive loud bang, a shock, a strong shock, it felt like the earth was moving and one second I am standing the next I am in the air flying about 3 meters and falling next to me the broken glasses of the supermarket and the shops, in this second, while I looked around, seen the smoke about 50 meters away from me and a whole in the ground, I knew it, I knew it was terrorist attack, I got up, nothing was wrong with me or at least I did not feel that there was anything wrong with me, did not feel the blood streaming down my face and hand, the shock was stronger than to feel anything, next to me there was those voices, cries, screams and whaling, there was too much pain, people calling names and checking the faces nearby, I walked couple of meters to see blood everywhere, five or six bodies were disfigured, a dog been cut in half and then I heard another big bang, shaking us all again.

Next thing I know was Sara calling my name, crying so badly, I didn't cry, I didn't feel anything I didn't even feel how realistic this was, it felt like a movie, happening in front of me in seconds, Sara insisted in taking me to the hospital but we were afraid this was not the last of the explosions and instead we went to her apartment where she cleared my wounds which wasn't dangerous, in the house, we called our families that seen the news on TV,  we assured them that we survived and that we are fine, the local news advised to lock ourselves in our houses and not go out, for several days no one went to work, or outside at all, all the news were really bad, after the terrorist attack there was a violent wave if crime, as all the shops windows and doors been broken as a result of the explosions, thieves used the situation to rob jewelry shops, electronics and everything that had value, we felt like trapped rats, nowhere to go or hide, no guarantee that our houses which area  holiday houses safe, we had no food and we were scared to risk going out, all we could hear was police sirens day and night, the news was not speaking the truth about what happened, not saying how many people have been killed or injured, it took about a week for the news to publish the number of victims, this experience was evil, it showed me evil, the people who done it were evil no matter what they ever say, this act was an act of devils.

This attack was the worse in Egypt history, Eighty eight people had lost their lives,11 Britons, 2 Germans, 6 Italians, 4 Turks, 1 Czech, 1 Israeli, 1 American and rest were Egyptians.

Three powerful explosives targeting the old market, Ghazala hotel and the Movenpick were successful at driving tourism away from Egypt for along time, loss of lives, horror, memories that will never fade, businesses closing down and for what ? what was their motive ? 

A group called Abdullah Azzam Brigades announced their selves responsible for the attacks relating themselves to Al-Qaeda claiming the attack was motivated by the war on Iraq.

Why would any sane person think killing is an answer ? do those brainwashed Islamists actually believe for one second that such behavior is accepted by Islam ?

Well, Islam is innocent from their actions, they use religion to hide their evil nature, they killed 88 person and injuring hundreds, is this is Jihad ?

I wonder if god ever looked down on us, would he be pleased to see that in his name there is sick people committing the worst crimes of all ?

To have been there, witnessing the death of innocents, seeing devastation and horror is an experience that taught me of human nature, that amongst us walk monstres, that evil takes so many shapes and it can easily take the shape of misguided religious people. Fear no one more than those extremists as the way they see the world and life as if it is not worth living and eager to die is dangerous and can be life costly.

Since that day and I have been in a constant hiding war with any religion groups, and maybe this incident had a great affect on how I see the Brotherhood today, religion should be a personal issue not a war cause.

All religions speak if love of other humans, Islam says  (حب لأخيك ما تحبه لنفسك-love for your brother what you love for yourself) Christianity spreads a message of love and all other religion ever existed calls for humanity and morals.. Not killing and not terrorizing.

In the memory of those who died before their times in such horror, R.I.P and to those like myself who seen this face of bad nature may our brains be weaker to the bloody memory, may we one day forget.