CAIRO: In Albania in the late 90s the deteriorating security situation for Abu Omar and his wife, who was pregnant at the time, made him rethink the future. He decided to give Egypt a second chance and bought plane tickets for him and his wife back to Cairo. However, they soon realized that the trip back to Egypt involved more complications than expected. The flight back required at least one layover in a European country, which required Abu Omar and his pregnant wife to obtain European entry visas. His wife was due to give birth at any time which made it illegal for her to fly. "The only place where it was easy for us to get an entry visa was Germany, so we decided to go through Frankfurt, Abu Omar argues. However, as him and his wife boarded the plane bound for Cairo in Frankfurt a stewardess grew suspicious of his wife's large stomach and demanded that she take off her abaya. When the German crew realized that one of their passengers was eight months pregnant, Abu Omar and wife were immediately ordered off the plane. His wife gave birth to their son in Germany shortly afterwards. Abu Omar applied for German asylum, but was denied. After giving birth to their child, Abu Omar's wife decided to head back to Albania. He, on the other hand, had other plans. "I wanted to go to Italy to work. I had heard good things about it. I knew people there. So I went to Rome and applied for asylum. While in Rome awaiting his asylum decision in 1997, Abu Omar made friends with a local Imam and started giving lessons in a mosque located in a small village outside the city. After a few years of teaching in the vicinity of Rome, Abu Omar was granted Italian asylum in 2000. At the same time, he also made the decision to head north to Milan in search of better work opportunities. In Milan, Abu Omar met Imam Abu Hamid who helped him secure a job in his mosque as well as in the local mosque library. While Abu Omar thrived in his work, he says that some members of the mosque were "radical and wanted to overthrow President Mubarak, which put the mosque on the "terrorist watch list. In early 2001, Abu Omar divorced his Albanian wife and married his current wife Nabila, then a teacher at Fagr Islamic School for Islamic studies in Milan. "Everything was going well. I had work. I had a family. Then came September 11 and my life went down the drain, Abu Omar says in a low voice. "President Berlusconi started a crusade against Italy's Muslim population, calling them 'insects' and other heinous names. Everyone was against Arabs. It was hard. My wife and I were continuously harassed on the streets. People would pull her veil and make negative remarks about my galabeya, he adds. With the start of the 'War on Terror' shifting the world's attention to the Arab world and Islam, Abu Omar says his mosque became subject to attacks and random searches by the Italian authorities. In early 2003, approximately two months before his kidnapping, the mosque was raided by the police on the suspicion it served as a center for radical fundamentalist activity. "They marched into the mosque fully uniformed with dogs on leashes. They took all the computers in the mosque library and rigged a surveillance camera outside the mosque. That would never have happened before September 11, he stresses. During that time, he was working at a journal called The Islamic Truth in which he often published articles and photo essays. "I posted heavy criticism of the mosque raid and Berlusconi's policy against Arabs in my pieces. I also condemned the practices of the US. These articles were published during the time leading up to my kidnapping, Abu Omar tells us. Abu Omar devours a big bite of kofta, takes a sip of his Pepsi and sits back in his chair. "You know, during those last months I always felt as if someone was following me. My friends told me not to worry but I knew that something bad was coming, he says. Between bites of his lunch, Abu Omar unravels his involuntary four year long voyage piece by piece from the day he disappeared into thin air in Italy. "On February 17, 2003, I was walking in a small narrow street in Milan on my way to the mosque when I saw a big van in front of me. I was wondering what it was doing there. Once I reached the mosque, a small car stopped on the opposite side of the street. A man got out of the car and approached me. He was blonde and looked American, but it turned out he was Italian. I thought he was American because Italians are usually not blonde, he says. The man, who claimed he was from the police, demanded to see Abu Omar's papers. When he showed his asylum papers, the man made a phone call from his mobile phone and subsequently asked Abu Omar to go with him. When he refused, a black car screeched to a halt nearby, startling the Imam. "I saw two very tall Arab-looking men, probably both around 190 cm in height, sitting in the car. I was pushed into the car. I tried my best to resist, but they were too many. They hit me bad, he continues. There were allegedly four people in the car, all wearing masks. Abu Omar says it was pitch black inside the car and that he couldn't determine where the men were from since no one said a word to him. "I had no idea what I was doing there or why they were beating me. I was so scared that I even wet my pants, Abu Omar continues. In the van, Abu Omar was allegedly blindfolded and his face was duck taped. He says his kidnappers also cut off his clothes and drugged him. "I was in the car for a long time, maybe four hours. I had no idea where we were going. I wasn't given food or water. According to research, the van drove the kidnapped Imam from Milan to Aviano Air Base where a military plane awaited the caravan. "I know that I was taken to another place in between the van and the airplane, but I don't know where. I don't even know if it was the same people handling me there or not, Abu Omar tells us. At Aviano Air Base in Northern Italy, Abu Omar was put on a military airplane and flown to an airbase in Ramstein, Germany. His carrier was later identified as Special Air Resources plane 'SPAR 92,' a US military service aircraft that usually transports civilian VIPs and senior military officers. Abu Omar was a VIP of sorts and the plane took off with the cleric aboard for Ramstein around 6.30 pm on February 17 where he was allegedly transferred to a Red Sox Gulfstream plane, which transported him to Cairo. Abu Omar says the flight was an experience that is "very hard to forget.
