I do not think that the Egyptian society has been shocked with a murder crime like the crime of Al Nozha neighborhood from a long time.Even the crime of 6 October murder did not reach to the level of this crime. After all it is not every day in Egypt when a father kills his family because of the financial crisis.
From 2 weeks ago Cairo woke up on a terrible crime : A high middle class father Sharif killed his wife Abla “a house wife” , his daughter 
Long live the Egyptian American stock Market !!
This family massacre happened about 2 AM according to one of the neighbors who heard some short noise from the apartment.
Abla’s mother called them in the morning but found no answer and thus sent her son Alaa. Alaa went there about 1 PM CLT , he rang the bell but no one answered , he knocked on the door along with the security of the building for a very long time till one of the neighbors came and told them about that short noise he heard at 2 AM. After hearing this Alaa broke the door and I am sure that what he found was not what he could ever imagine. He found his sister and all her children are killed by no one expect their than their own father Sharif !!
Sharif strangely was alive after about 10 hours after the crime and up till now he is the I.C under 24 hours surveillance from the police for fear he would kill himself again. He is in a very bad status. But he confessed the whole crime right away ,first through writing then through talking .
Sharif as I said is from a high middle class, he lived in the Gulf and returned back , as far as I read somewhere he worked for Jaguar Egypt. The family has four cars and there are Jewels in the flat found by the police. His family was shocked and could not believe the news that the calm quiet Sharif would do something like this. In fact surprisingly the family of Abla also is so shocked and they did not attack him !! Sharif was a loving father and husband according to all people. As I implied Sharif killed his family after the financial crisis. Sharif decided to kill his family after his massive losses in the Egyptian stock market. According to the news sources he lost about one million Egyptian pound from his own money , of course I do not see why for one million Egyptian pound he would depress like this then go crazy and kill his family in this terrible way !!??
But it turned out according Sharif’s own confession he used to take money from others to invest it in the stock market and he lost that money and this is why he killed his family !! For fear the anger of others.
it is terrible crime by all means that is alien to our society with all our social diseases.
Yes the financial crisis breaks down men but usually these men take own their life down but not the rest of the their family. Since 1940s or even since the inauguration of the Egyptian bourse men used to commit suicide because of their losses in the stock market whether by jumping to the Nile or jumping from the famous Emoblia building !!
Already I remember that after the international melt down and the fall of the Egyptian stock market couple of men killed themselves. But for someone to kill this family in this brutal way , this is too much , for God sake his offspring was fully grown up!!
The crime has not only shocked the Egyptians and became the talk of town but it opened a debate about how Sharif will be brought to trial ,whether as a sane person or insane person,whether he deserves to be executed or not …etc. His lawyers are trying to make him insane to escape execution.
Sharif for sure is not a stable and he suffers from a great depression yet he planned for his crime and he knew the consequences very well. Already I read a statement for him in the newspaper saying that he wanted to be executed so he could join his family !!
You know my mom told me that in 1970s a family massacre like this happened but that time the family was killed by the son ,the son killed his parents and his sister.Already the son suffered from psychological problems and when they asked him why he killed his family , he told them that he loved them so much and did not want them to suffer in this cruel world. Already that young man killed his mother while she was praying the dune prayer. Strangely then the court ordered his execution.
I believe he should be executed,the court should listen to the request of Sharif to execute him.
I think Sharif was suffering from greed and lack of faith,in the end he was led to depression.Needless to say most people in Egypt refuse to admit that it is not shame thing to go to a psychiatric.
I do not know if we are going to see more of these crimes because of the economic crisis or not. It is kind of a scary thing especially with the increase rate of violence and anger in Egypt.
By the way There is one point I do not get it. Why did he kill his family with an axe in this terrible way that reflects hate where as he could use poison to ensure that they would not suffer or feel pain ??
Thank you for this blog post. Depression or note from misfortune leading to suicide and serial killings of strangers or even loved ones remains an unsolved mystery of the human mind ever since the origins of science and or philosophy: what is the ultimate outcome of pleasure and pain? Society usually blames the killer, while some occasionally blame the victim; but in the end, the story ends and everyone goes back to their own lives. Then on, from that same society, another person comes out and does the same again. Then it is all news for that same society once again. Innocence is always murdered by evil. When past philosophers could not find the answer of such evil, I believe the fate of the human race is for science, notably neuroscience (studies of the brain and the works of its neurons), would need to come up with some formula to predict the future killer and stop the evil from recurring. Research researches are proving that this very well possible. However, we only need to hope that science will lead to better good and not simply more evil!
ReplyDeleteAnon 123.
ReplyDeleteI think society as a whole in Egypt is to blame. They define happiness, class and achievement using purely materialistic yardsticks. You (I don’t mean you personally) unfairly gain, win in lottery, inherit or even steel huge amount of money, placing you above your peers levels, that means you are upper class, happy distinguished individual/family. It doesn’t matter you’re ignorant, thief worshipping money first and last. You mentioned you parent explained to you that suicides happened in Egypt for similar reason(s) prior to the revolution of 1952. I bet you if you check the first two decades of the revolution when Nasser basically removed the so called “upper class” and replaced it with generous advantages to military officers, the rest of the country looked for education to distinguish them compared to their surroundings, and you didn’t hear about people committing suicide because of money. Only, some young kids failing to score high enough in H.S to enter university did, but generally suicide was at much lower scale. Check it out and analyze !!!.
"of course I do not see why for one million Egyptian pound he would depress like this then go crazy and kill his family in this terrible way !!??"
ReplyDeleteBecause my dear he worshipped MONEY and not Allah. The axe is very ugly and disgusting but I suppose he didn't have a way to get a gun? I can't imagine a man killing his son and having his son fight him all for money. La illaha illa lah...These are the stories we hear regularly here in USA. Welcome to the social ails of the West. As they say in Egypt..."Taaleed a3mah"
They should let him finish what he failed at for he will get capital punishment anyways. Save the court costs.
It's just amazing how upon losing a dear one, one would weep buckets repeating that all the treasures in the entire world wouldn't compensate for his/her loss, and how one can have the heart to commit such a brutal crime!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he ever read or listened to the verse:
"ولا تقتلوا اولادكم خشية املاق نحن نرزقهم واياكم ان قتلهم كان خطئا كبيرا"
or:
"قل تعالوا اتل ما حرم ربكم عليكم الا تشركوا به شيئا وبالوالدين احسانا ولا تقتلوا اولادكم من املاق نحن نرزقكم واياهم ولا تقربوا الفواحش ما ظهر منها وما بطن ولا تقتلوا النفس التي حرم الله الا بالحق ذلكم وصاكم به لعلكم تعقلون"
What made you change from Arabic to English? I think you should keep writing in Arabic as it was much better than your English. I find it difficult to follow what you wanna say sometimes.
ReplyDeletehttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/02/25/egyptians-on-the-verge-of-insanity/
ReplyDelete@Tarek , I am afraid science won't and can't stop evil after science currently is being used for evil
ReplyDeleteWhat you ask or wish for ,was discussed before in many future novels and films like Minority report as I remember and it did not prevent evil and greed
@anonymous, good point , for sure the society is responsible for putting lots of pressure over the burden of the person
The same society that put those shallow social standards is also the same society that denounces those who go to ask for professional help
@N.American Princess, yes you know I remember those incidents in America I read after the melt down of Wall Street when I knew about this crime , money and greed !!
@Hina wi Hinak , the strange thing is that he said to be a very good man who used to pray in the Mosque , I think he did not concentrate on what he was reading the Holy Quran
@anonymous#2 ,I did not change, in fact I blog in English before in Arabic
@Marwa, thank Marwa, it is terrible ,our society is getting madder and madder for sure but till when I do not know
He was a family friend and this has come as a huge shock to us. Sherif used to work in IT as well, he sorted my family's computers. He was a lovely man who cared very much for his family. Once when he was at our house helping my father set up our pc he wouldnt even have dinner because he didnt want to waste time as he said his kids had exams and he needed to get back to them to help them with their studying. He was very calm and very well mannered. Only God knows what turned him like that but he certainly was the last person you would ever expect to do this. He was close to his family and i believe he wanted to spare them the shame in a society that doesnt stop talking.
ReplyDelete