Egyptian Coptic priest seen in underpants after being searched at Cairo's Grand Hyatt Hotel. CAIRO: Coptic Priest Boulis Oweida was on his way to an iftar meal at Cairo's Grand Hyatt Hotel last week to join other religious leaders for a “unity” meal. Upon arrival at the hotel, he was strip searched by security at the hotel gates. The whole ordeal was captured by a witness and posted on youtube. The incident has sparked concern over growing anti-Christian sentiments in the country, but Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf called the priest and told him he was personally intervening to transfer the case to the general prosecutor's office for investigation. Sharaf condemned the actions of the security guards and apologized to Oweida. The priest said that Sharaf's call has healed his wounds and called the PM a “truly patriotic man.” The footage shows Priest Oweida in the midst of an angry discussion with security personnel at the gates of the hotel while in his underpants. The footage also showed a security guard grinning at the angry priest while he was putting back on his clothes. The Priest had filed an official complaint at the hotel, but security rejected the priest's story and said “it did not happen,” before the video that proved the priest's story was released online. Oweida called the whole incident “full of stupidity from the hotel's part” in a phone call to an Egyptian satellite channel. He added that he was wearing a bracelet that eases joint pains and that was the cause for the metal detector at the door going off. The hotel gate's guard, however did not respect the priest and insisted that he remove his clothes to be “personally searched.” The Priest then became very angry and according to his statements he yelled at them, “I don't have any bombs.” “I felt I was deeply insulted and humiliated in my country and I felt that my ‘Egyptianness' was offended,” Oweida added. Hesham Zazouq, deputy minister of tourism called the incident “inappropriate and disgraceful” on the hotel's part, in a phone call to Mahtet Masr TV. “What happened to his excellency Oweida is completely unacceptable and we are looking into that,” he added. As a goodwill invitation, Minister of Tourism Fakhry Abdel Nour invited Priest Oweida to an Iftar in his honor, along senior personnel from the hotel and senior employees of the ministry this Thursday at the hotel. The hotel claims that it ran an interior investigation and found no ill intention behind the incident. The hotel management sent a letter of explanation to the ministry of tourism asserting its full respect to all religions and all religious figures in Egypt, calling the incident a “misunderstanding on the employee's part.” What happened to Priest Oweida stirred public anger at the way he was treated and some activists had been planning a protest in front of the hotel last week. “What happened to Priest Oweida couldn't have happened at a worse time,” said Nashaat Moheb, an activist and blogger. “Within the context that Egypt is going through and reported violence between Copts and Muslims, this incident could trigger a lot of negative feelings among the Coptic community in Egypt,” he added. Moheb said that even if the incident had nothing to do with the person being a religious figure, one must question if the same would have happened to a Muslim clerk. “It is sad that after the revolution and while we try to build a more coherent and stronger community, silly incidents like this one happens,” he added. It is worth mentioning that Oweida was among the leading religious figures in the Tahrir square during the 18 days of protest that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak's regime and ousted him from power. BM
