During my current trip to the City of Fog, I deliberately focused on security measures and the behaviour of police officers at both Cairo International Airport and Heathrow in London. It proved to be a fruitful experience, yielding fascinating results that contrast with the recent past.
At Cairo Airport, individuals with beards were once automatically assumed to be Islamist extremists or at least connected to them. Meanwhile, those with unruly, long hair were seen as communists or some vague leftist threat that no one fully understood.
As for someone like me, who happens to have both a beard and unruly hair, I was a constant enigma to a mindset fixated on labelling people. I am neither a staunch Islamist nor a communist and cannot identify myself with any fixed label. Security personnel used to amuse me with their absurdly repetitive question: ‘What are you?’ To save us both time, I would offer a simple answer: ‘A journalist.’ This would always elicit the same reaction: ‘Ahh.’ They would smile, and life would proceed smoothly.
Conversely, at Heathrow Airport, no one used to ask questions. I would often see men in short robes and Salafi turbans passing through security alongside individuals with tattoos, green-dyed hair, and nose rings, all treated equally. I felt a sense of fairness that transcended appearances, making me respect the British security system before even stepping out of their airport.
On this trip, however, the situation had shifted—not entirely to the opposite extreme, but perhaps leaning in that direction. For this journey, I decided not to trim my beard as I usually do every fortnight, just to observe the reactions. At Cairo Airport, I encountered only smiling faces, from the lowest-ranking officers to the highest. Not only did I notice the utmost respect from those directly handling my travel procedures, but when I asked guiding questions to other officers nearby, I found exemplary politeness and courtesy. It pleased me greatly and heightened my sense of pride in the revolution.
Unexpectedly, at Heathrow, which traditionally made no distinction based on appearances, I was the only passenger on the flight singled out and taken aside for questioning.
A plainclothes officer, clearly from MI5 (similar to Egypt’s State Security), with a stern, pale British face, politely asked me to accompany him away from the other passengers. This embarrassed me somewhat, as I was the only one subjected to such treatment. I felt the questioning eyes of others wondering what this peculiar-looking individual had done.
The officer asked straightforward questions about my previous visits, the purpose of my current trip, its duration, and where I would be staying. He then inquired about my profession. I gave my usual simple answer: ‘A journalist.’ His stern face softened into a smile, followed by small talk and even polite laughter. Yet he insisted on taking my business card and asked, ‘Can we read your articles on the website listed here?’ I replied, ‘Yes, but they are in Arabic.’ He smiled proudly and said, ‘We have people who read Arabic. We just want to know the kind of ideas you write about.’ He also insisted on noting my return flight number and date, which made me feel as though my privacy had been violated—much like the arbitrary interrogations of pre-25 January Egypt, albeit with the verbal politeness of His Excellency, the British Pasha.
As I made my way to my accommodation in London, I couldn’t help but compare the Egyptian and British security apparatuses. The former appears to be on a path towards civility, showing respect for citizens and their physical—perhaps later intellectual—differences. The latter, however, seems to be abandoning its long history of professionalism and maturity, sliding into the swamp of suspicion, labelling people based on appearances, all under security pretexts no less absurd than those of Egypt’s State Security before the oppressed descended on Tahrir Square.
This shift prompts deeper reflection on the changes taking place. It also raises an intellectual question often debated among thinkers: are we witnessing the decline of these ageing nations that currently lead the world? Is this economic deterioration, the depletion of resources, and the erosion of citizens’ rights to essential services like healthcare and education yet another sign of an impending collapse? Perhaps these questions will not have definitive answers anytime soon. But what is certain is that the coming years will reveal how the Egyptian revolution and its Arab counterparts progress, against the backdrop of the West’s deliberate self-destruction and its backward leap.
This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.