Bad blood between Egypt and Algeria runs deeper than football

Matt Bradley, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 20. 2009 10:44PM UAE / November 20. 2009 6:44PM GMT

Demonstrators protest near the Algerian Embassy in Cairo on Thursday after Algeria defeated Egypt in a World Cup qualifying match. Reuters

CAIRO // Residents of Cairo’s upmarket neighbourhood of Zamalek awoke yesterday morning to see their leafy streets under a state of siege, as hundreds of riot police held positions throughout the capital’s embassy district to quell a spat of violence that broke out Thursday night, just streets from the Algerian Embassy.

Before dawn yesterday, rioters smashed the shopfront window of Mohammed Mohammed Imam Zahran’s butcher shop, not far from the embassy.

But like the concerned parent of a destructive youth, Mr Zahran said he was far less angry with the damage caused than at the object of the protest: the Algerian government.

Mr Zahran accused Algiers of turning a blind eye to violent Algerian football fans, who reportedly attacked Egyptian spectators on Wednesday night following a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

“I am not worried about my shop, I am worried about my people, my country, my nationality,” Mr Zahran said. “It’s not about the game, it’s about the manner. How can you do that to Arab people who are the same as you?” he said.

While the street in front of the Algerian Embassy was closed and clotted with infantry trucks, motorists on Zamalek’s main commercial avenue continued to blare their horns and wave Egyptian flags in support of a national team that until Wednesday night still held out the hope of qualifying for its first World Cup berth since 1990.

The rioters, whom security services had blocked from reaching the Algerian mission, threw rocks and firebombs at police, injuring 11 officers and damaging 15 cars, according to Egypt’s ministry of interior.

Yesterday’s violence was the latest incident in an escalating diplomatic row between Egypt and Algeria, whose two World Cup qualifying matches this week inflamed decades-old tensions and incited days of tit-for-tat violence in Algiers, Khartoum and Cairo.

The violence after Egypt lost Wednesday night may have made Cairo look like sore losers. But to many Egyptians, yesterday’s rioting was not about a game. It was about respect. “This has nothing to do with sport. This is something we’ve been dealing with for a long time,” said Hassan Al Mestekawy, a sport and politics columnist for the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Sharouq. The vivid display of anger late on Thursday and early yesterday was a sort of catharsis, said Mr Al Mestekawy, after decades of Algerian enmity towards Egypt.

“For some reason, Algerians really hate us. They call us Zionists. They call us Masrael,” he said, recalling an insult that makes a portmanteau of the Arabic word for Egypt (Masr) and Israel.

“There’s bad blood with Algerians. We don’t know how it started. Every Egyptian who goes to Algeria gets insulted and intimidated. There’s absolutely no respect for Egyptians in Algeria.”

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state – a fact that has, at times, cast Egypt as a traitor to Arab unity. During the three-week Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip early this year, Arab leaders and pundits excoriated the Egyptian government for its decision not to assist its Palestinian neighbours by opening its border to the Gaza Strip.

In the lead-up to the two World Cup qualifiers this week, columnists and television commentators in both Algeria and Egypt vilified their opponents. The antagonism was such that when Algerian players arrived at Cairo airport before the first of the two games last Saturday, they were greeted by stone-throwing hooligans. Several Algerian players were injured.

On the day that followed Egypt’s initial 2-0 victory, Algerians looted the Algiers offices of Orascom Telecom, a prominent Egyptian communications firm.

After Algeria beat Egypt 1-0 in the second qualifying match on Wednesday night in Khartoum, armed Algerian fans reportedly attacked Egyptian spectators as they left the stadium.

Now, the conflict has spread from the streets and the football pitch to the halls of power. On Thursday, Egypt withdrew its ambassador to Algiers and summoned Algeria’s ambassador to explain why the Algerian government had neglected to protect Egyptian people and property. Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, made a statement yesterday calling for calm.

But as such incidents of street hooliganism become matters of diplomacy, others said yesterday that Egyptians may be as frustrated with their own country as they are furious with Algeria. The escalating violence is a symptom of a nation in decline – of a population that once considered themselves to be the beating heart of the Arab world, but who now find themselves disenfranchised at home and disrespected abroad, said Ahmed Aiesa, 23, who was among the protesters.

“Egyptians keep losing their rights in Egypt and outside of Egypt, no one stands up, nobody protects us. You’re oppressed inside your country and outside your country.”

mbradley@thenational.ae