AL-BALTAJIYAH is a term widely used in Egypt. It is a colloquial expression to indicate criminals who rob and terrorize people.
Some of the Baltajiyah even control entire streets and districts. Some police officers in the defunct regime used the Baltajiyah to terrorize people and they received monthly payments to overlook their crimes.
During the Jan. 25 revolution, the Baltajiyah were one of the tools used by the deposed president's regime to quell demonstrations. This was confirmed by Safwat Hijazi in an interview about the revolution with Al-Jazeera television.
The ordinary people who suffered from oppression and injustice under the old regime contributed to the success of the revolution, and then returned to their painful search for livelihood.
But after the revolution a new type of Baltajiyah surfaced. They did their work on satellite channels, talk show programs and newspapers.
These people did not want Egypt to be stable and to begin the process of reconstruction and development in an atmosphere of freedom, equality and social justice. They were only concerned with agitating the public and creating chaos, refuting the notion that they could only express themselves through sit-ins, demonstrations and physical confrontations with their opponents.
It is these people who rekindled sectarian and partisan rifts in the country. Using their voices and pens, some of them attempted to turn Egyptians against Saudis and Saudi Arabia.
What happened to the Cairo office of Saudi Arabian Airlines and the chaos created by some Egyptian pilgrims at King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah was a product of the work of the Baltajiyah under the cover of freedom.
It is true that all pilgrims and visitors, including our Egyptian brothers, have a right to good and dignified treatment from the moment they arrive in the Kingdom until they leave.
It is equally true that Saudia, our national carrier, is in complete disarray from which Saudi citizens are suffering. Our airports, including the KAIA, are unable to accommodate the millions of travelers and lack many services.
Yes, all those who contributed to the overcrowding of pilgrims at the airport and those who mistreated them should be held accountable and severely punished.
More important, our public properties should be protected. Our Egyptian brothers should realize that freedom does not mean creating chaos and breaking the law, otherwise they would be classed as the Baltajiyah.
Egypt should be certain the Saudis love them despite the mistakes committed by individual Egyptians. They should not become tools for people who aspire to seed tension between the two peoples.
Our concerned officials, specifically our embassy in Cairo, should confront those who want to mar our relationship with our Egyptian brothers through the media.
© Arab News 2011
