October 6 City: At first sight you think you are in Baghdad.
Signs outside stores in this Egyptian town near Cairo carry names of Iraqi cities such as Mosul and Babel. Iraqi faces and dialect are common too. Since the US-led invasion in 2003, thousands of Iraqis have flocked to Egypt where their number is estimated at about 120,000.
"We are leading a peaceful life in Egypt whose people's traditions we know well and respect," said Khalid Zayed, an Iraqi Shiite from the southern province of Basra.
"Many Egyptians worked in Iraq in the 1980s. So we are no strangers to them," he told Gulf News.
Zayed is living along with his family in the Seventh Quarter of October 6 City.
"We have bought an apartment block and plan to start up businesses like other Iraqis here," he added.
Iraqi coffee shops, grocery stores and restaurants have sprung up in this Egyptian town, which has apparently attracted Shiites from Iraq.
Egyptian authorities have recently denied local press reports that the Iraqi Shiites have applied for permission to build Shiite mosques in October 6 City. Egypt is predominantly Sunni.
In harmony
"The fact that most Iraqi Shiites coming to Egypt reside in October 6 City is a mere coincidence," said Jasem Ali, an Iraqi Shiite. "Don't forget that the Shiites constitute around 60 per cent of Iraqis."
Ali said that his children were studying in fee-paying schools and universities in this town. "We often visit the shrines of the descendants of the Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] in Cairo without any trouble."
He denied a rumour that the Iraqi Shiites plan to set up a major site to practise their rituals. "This rumour is apparently due to the vast plots of land bought by the Iraqis over recent months with the aim of starting up businesses. We are not alone here. There are residents from the Gulf, Palestine and of course Egyptians. Our aim is to live and work in peace."
Last week, the Egyptian authorities tightened restrictions on granting entry visas to the Iraqis.
Instead of obtaining visas at points of arrival, the Iraqis must apply in advance at Egyptian consulates abroad.
"The decision is due to the nature of security circumstances accompanying the entry of Iraqis into Egypt at the present time," Mahmoud Ouf, a senior official at the Foreign Ministry, has said. "The sensitivities of the Egyptian national security must be respected."
Immigrants are supposed to apply for visas but not refugees. Iraqis are refugees!!
Egypt is breaching international law.
-------------------- "Whashing One's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral" -Freire- Posts: 370 | From: Montreal, Canada + World expat | Registered: Apr 2004
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