Egyptian resentment toward US government policies may be justified – but this doesn't make Egypt a dangerous place for Americans, Christopher Stone, the American scholar stabbed outside the US embassy in Cairo earlier this month, told Ahram Online.
His attacker, Mahmoud Badr, a 30-year-old man from the Nile Delta's Kafr El-Sheikh, told police that he had come to Cairo – motivated by hatred for the United States – in search of an American to kill.
"I fully realise that this was a random act," said Stone, 13 days after the attempt on his life. "I still feel that Egypt is a safe place for Americans to live."
Stone is an associate professor of Arabic and head of the Arabic Programme at Hunter College of New York's City University.
"Many Egyptians are upset with US government policies in the region, as they should be," said the lifelong Arabic-language scholar and defender of the Palestinian cause.
"But I believe, and have always said, that Egyptians are better than most at differentiating between the American government and people," Stone explained, citing numerous examples of warm receptions by Egyptians he had met who admitted to varying degrees of hostility to US policy.
As to his assailant, Stone said: "He's obviously mentally ill to do what he did."
Stone, who has been to Egypt countless times since 1988 as a student and researcher, had come to Cairo in January – with his wife and two children – on a six-month long fellowship with the American Research Centre in Egypt to do research on late Egyptian singer/songwriter El-Sheikh Emam.
Stone, who was admitted to Cairo's Qasr Al-Aini Hospital for three days after the attack, is travelling back to New York on Friday for medical treatment. He is nevertheless determined to come back to Egypt as soon as his health allows to complete his research.
.... The attack took place at noon right in front of the consulate entrance, where he had been waiting to hear about procedures regarding his wife's travel documentation.If he came with his family in January, chances are very high that his wife has already been sexually harassed by the Egyptians that Stone loves so much.
A man standing nearby, outside the visa line, had politely asked him if he was American, to which Stone had confirmed – in Arabic – that he was. Less than one minute later, Badr had snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the neck before security guards could react.
"It would be a shame if this incident prevented others from coming to Cairo for work or study," the Arabophile said via Facebook in the wake of the attack. "What happened to me was an exceptional event, and even now I feel very safe – both me and my family – in the country."
For some people, the more that they are hated, the more they want to make themselves loved to those that hate them. It is really is a psychological illness, related to battered person syndrome, where some of the victims blame themselves for being abused and redouble their efforts to please their tormentors. In this case, Stone acted like a battered spouse even before he was physically attacked - so much does he want to prove that he is lovable and not at all like the bad Americans.
When an individual acts this way, it is tragic. When an entire group acts this way, it could be catastrophic.