Ken Works in Mysterious Ways, Doesn't He?

NOVANEWS

.by Mary Shepard on Monday, 31 October 2011 at 13:34.

To follow up on what I’d posted a few days ago on my wall about two people in Alexandria who put me in danger, first of all I want to let everybody know I’m OK, but most of all that I am quite imperfect and very capable of bad judgment and making big mistakes. I said some things in confidence to someone I believed was a friend and sister in Islam, but it turned out that she was not a friend or sister at all, and although I should not have said what I said, I don’t believe it justified having my safety or my life jeopardized. I am grateful for the mercy of God and for the help I received from the most unexpected sources.

A few weeks ago while in Alexandria and riding the tram to work, I had my wallet stolen out of my shoulder bag. I had about 400 EGP, my passport and my New York State ID in the wallet. The thief, a woman (I was riding the women-only tram car) is welcome to the damned wallet (a very nice old 1960’s eel skin wallet) and the money, but losing my passport is something no one wants to happen, since it’s a big expense and a hassle to deal with. There are no US embassy services in Alexandria except for 2 days at the end of every month, and you have to email them and request an appointment.

I’d been working at a very small private English language training center in Alexandria since arriving in Egypt at the end of June, run by an American man who has been in Egypt for 3 years and is married to an Egyptian woman. Most of what I did was teach conversation classes, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation to Egyptian English teachers and doctors. I also taught preparation classes for the SAT test and the IELTS. In July, I made very good money, teaching 2 to 4 classes a day except for having Fridays off. During the month of Ramadan, which was in August this year, my boss had decided to close the school and take a vacation. I spent the month relaxing in Miami, a part of Alexandria located on the Mediterranean Sea, where I’d rented a flat. Because the school was closed for Ramadan, I made no money that month.

When I returned to work in September, my boss told me that he had spent 5,000 EGP of the school’s money on a vacation for himself and his family, and that if the school didn’t receive any new contracts for work, it would have to close by the end of the month. He said that he wanted to form a partnership with Teachers Without Borders, that he had been talking with someone from that organization about it, but that it would be necessary for him to go to Azerbaijan as a volunteer teacher for 3 months, and that he expected me to run his struggling school for him while he was away. He said if I didn’t agree to do it, he would simply close the school and fire me.

Of course, I was extremely upset. I was getting over the flu, feeling very tired. Recently I’d given up my flat in Miami because it was too expensive (and a woman who came from the UK to teach at the school changed her mind after 2 days and went home) and was staying with an American woman, a Muslim revert like myself who was married to an Egyptian doctor, and whom I was introduced to by a mutual friend on Facebook. We seemed to have become good friends, and I stayed in her home for 2 weeks until the landlord said I had to leave – Egypt is under emergency law, and her husband did not report to the authorities that I was staying in their flat, and their landlord was trying to avoid problems. When that happened, I went to stay with my boss and his wife and son.

This is where I made my first mistake, and I am very sorry I made it. One morning I was feeling very overwhelmed and angry at my boss after he had told me the night before about all the work, studying and preparations I would have to make to be able to teach ALL the classes and handle ALL the responsibility of the school, and I was also aware that he hadn’t paid me for my work for the month of September. It was now October, I felt very angry over the situation, and I was crying when my American friend came online on Facebook. Trusting her to keep my confidence, I said some things about my boss out of anger. I am sorry I said them, but I also trusted this woman, who seemed to care very much about me, and I had spent 2 weeks in her home, sleeping in her guest room, playing with her son, and when I was sick her husband gave me medication. I loved her; she and her family had been so good to me and I was so glad to have an American friend in Alexandria.

A couple of days later, he ended my employment at his school and paid me only 165 EGP for all the work I did, including many hours of internet research which he asked me to do, to find materials online that he could use for a book he said he was writing. He had me return my keys, saying he’d decided to close the school, and that I could find work easily in Cairo. The last day I was in Alexandria was a Saturday; he went to work in the morning and I stayed behind, since I didn’t have a job anymore. In the afternoon he returned to the flat with a train ticket for me to Cairo, saying he’d gotten word from the embassy that if I went to Cairo straight away, someone would meet me at the train station and take care of everything. (What an idiot I was – the embassy is closed on weekends). I hurriedly packed up my things, he took me to the train station, and just as I was getting on the train he handed me a large white envelope, which he said contained my teaching certification (I had taken the 120 hour international TOEFL course in September), a letter of recommendation, and the money he still owed me. On the outside of the envelope he had written a phone number for the US embassy, telling me to call the number when I arrived in Cairo and someone would come to the train station and pick me up. Oh God was I stupid.

When I got off the train in Cairo, it was dark. I called the number on the outside of the envelope and got a recording. I called my boss and found he’d blocked my phone number. I opened the envelope and found nothing inside but a blank sheet of paper and a printed copy of the chat I’d had with the American woman whom I had trusted and thought was my friend. My boss had, in effect, dumped me in a strange city, after dark, and knowing I had no money. And he knew that I can’t speak Arabic.

I called everyone I know in Cairo, and one man helped me, an older gentleman who operates a big commercial banana farm. He was busy at the farm but called one of his friends, asking them to pick me up at the train station and to give me a place to stay. The friend, a man named Gamal, came in his battered old car, bringing along his wife and six children. They took me to their home, a flat on the top floor of a building in a very poor area of Cairo. There were huge piles of garbage everywhere, goats and camels were for sale on the side of the road, and half-starved cats wandered through the rubbish. After climbing so many stairs that I thought I’d get a nosebleed, I entered their home, a tiny three-room flat containing mostly beds for everyone to sleep on and Islamic books in Arabic. In the bathroom there was a shower, and a toilet that was nothing more than a hole in the floor. You flushed it by pouring a bucket of water into it.

There were six kids – 4 boys and 2 girls, the oldest being a 12 year old boy, Abdhallah. He was learning English in school and sometimes liked to read my English Quran. He would also recite Quran for me in Arabic. The youngest child was a sickly little boy named Bilal, whom I think was about 2 years old although it was hard to know because he couldn’t walk, and his body was very small and thin. Gamal’s nephew, who came the next day to interpret for his uncle, told me the little boy suffered from a disease that weakened his bones and kept him from growing normally.

Gamal’s nephew, Mohammed, was fairly fluent in English, and he explained that the family were very devout Muslims, and that they were happy to help me in hopes that Allah would reward them for it. They shared their small amount of food with me, and they insisted that if there was anything I wanted or needed, they would get it for me. Of course, I took nothing; it was very hard for me to accept even what they were giving me, but even more than that, I was amazed by their faith and their trust in me. They didn’t know me, or anything about me – I could have been a bad person who would harm them or their children – but every night they gave me a place to sleep, made me a cup of tea, and one Friday after praying at the mosque, they took me to the Mall of Arabia, where they apparently wanted to buy me anything I wanted, although I kept saying, “laa, laa, shukran, shukran,” and shaking my head.

After I’d stayed with this family for about 10 days, I was taken to another part of Cairo to stay with a very friendly and charming woman named Ayat, and her young son. She actually gave me her flat to use while she went elsewhere with her son at night to stay with friends. She bought me food, introduced me to her friends, and like Gamal’s family she gave me her trust. Americans don’t do this; if you knock on their doors they either will not answer, or will shut the door in your face. They are so afraid of each other that they don’t even know who their neighbors are. And even the rich ones hold on so tightly to what they have; they would never consider doing what the poorest Muslim family would do for a stranger. In fact, Americans will even put a limit on how much they will help someone in their own family.

Then Sheikh Hisham came to visit me. He is a local celebrity and has appeared on Cairo television to talk about Islam and social issues. He and his family also spent several years living in the US before recently returning to Egypt. He talked with me for a long time, wanting to know about me, my life, and what help he could give me. Then I went to stay in his house, which is close to Tahrir Square and very close to Mohammed Ali mosque, and I met his family and had a big dinner. His daughter shared her bedroom with me, and we talked a long time before we went to sleep.

Gamal and his family had taken me to the US embassy already, where I spoke to two very unhelpful people who refused to give me any help at all. Like robots, they both said that I needed to come back with $135 and they would issue me a new passport. However, they were interested in what my ex-boss did to me, especially in knowing that he was not paying taxes to the IRS while making money in Egypt, so they will be contacting the Internal Revenue Service. Next year, when he tries to renew his US passport, my ex-boss will run into a problem with the US government.

What I wanted to let people know by writing this is that Ken O’Keefe has some very unbalanced friends. Unfortunately, I promised not to tell anyone how I came to know that these people were behind what happened to me, but it was a relief to know why. I trust my source, I have known this person a long time, and so when they told me these two Americans were “gunning” for me, and that they had planned something, I took it seriously. The woman in Alexandria, along with another person, saw an opportunity to “get” me for my public criticism of O’Keefe (what he always refers to as “attacking” him). I am one of the infamous “3 Marys” he is always accusing of trying to sabotage his so-called humanitarian work. Some of Ken’s friends had tried to jeopardize my safety in Jordan by posting on Facebook that I was a CIA agent; this is the same group of people who have done this to me in Cairo. I take total responsibility for my stupidity. However, there is no justification for putting anyone’s safety in jeopardy, especially when my ongoing concern has been for how O’Keefe accounts for donations. If people want to worship him, or believe he is some kind of holy hero, that is their choice; but if O’Keefe is such a good and saintly person, why won’t he show what he has done with the money people have given him? That is all I have ever asked.

When I said the bad things about my former boss, I said them in anger and would have never said anything publicly. I was merely venting, and after the anger had passed, I’d thought about what he wanted me to do, decided to try to do my best, and I had told him this. If he had approached me and asked me about it, I would have told him honestly about what I’d said and why I’d said it, but instead, he reacted by allowing Ken’s friend to use him to try to harm me. He involved himself in a plot when clearly, it is always better to talk directly with the person you are angry with. This is a lesson for both of us. One thing is for certain – I absolutely did not say anything or do anything to justify being dumped at the Cairo train station with no money, no teaching certificate, and to deliberately lie to me and mislead me about getting help from the embassy.

I am OK now. The Sheikh’s sister has given me a nice flat to live in, and when I start working again I will begin paying rent. They have replaced my laptop battery charger (which got lost somewhere in the Cairo train station), bought food for my kitchen, and will take me to the embassy tomorrow to finally get my passport (another very good friend here, someone I have known for several years, has sent the $135 fee), and then I will get a new Egyptian visa. Alhamdulillah for everything, for people who have given me so much love and support, and for the mercy of Allah. The Egyptian people are great; they are fine Muslim people with generous hearts, and I am honored to have them as my brothers and sisters.

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Mary Woodward Shall I say, “Allah ahkbar”? You are so lucky that when a door gets slammed in your face, another one opens. With your travails, I hope the time is soon arriving that you will find your home, Mary.

31 October 2011 at 13:51 · LikeUnlike.Mary Shepard I hope so too, Miri. I’m way, way past tired. I also find it very ironic that in Egypt, I would not have problems from Egyptians, but from Americans. It’s a shame. It’s also a shame that a Muslim woman would put a sister in harm’s way for the sake of Ken O’Keefe. There’s just something very sick about this.
31 October 2011 at 13:53 · LikeUnlike · 1.Mary Woodward Do you have this note “public”? If not, you might consider opening it up.

I’ve helped strangers, many times, but I’ve always drawn the line at bringing them into my home (too many horror stories, Stateside); I’ve also felt that this i…s a moral failing, on my part, though.

Good luck. You’re in my prayers, and so are the kind souls who have helped you.

As for your former boss, despite whatever you had said in anger, his actions were *evil*, a word I almost never use, because it has no wiggle room for the complexities of us mere mortals.See more
31 October 2011 at 13:59 · LikeUnlike · 1.Rose Whipple By the hand of God and those wonderful people, my Mom is now safe! I am so relieved! I love how you wrote this, I felt as if I was there with you through all that. You are such a strong person I love you ♥

31 October 2011 at 15:05 · LikeUnlike · 3.Mary Shepard I didn’t make the note public because I don’t want one of those stupid Facebook wars. There is a third person involved whom I cannot name, and they have some mutual friends with me. Right now, I’m being super cautious. Rose, one of these da…ys I will tell you about everything that I experienced in the past 15 months, beginning when I went to Houston. It’s been damn interesting, and I’ve learned a lot. My friend Mary Woodward (on this thread) is one of the biggest reasons I’ve been able to get through the hardest times. I’ve never had such a great friend in my whole life as my friend “Miri”, and I couldn’t love her more if she were a flesh and blood sister. But I’ve also met the most extraordinary people in the most unusual circumstances. I’m one very grateful woman, and this time in my life has been nothing less than amazing. 🙂 As we Muslims say, “alhamdulillah for everything!”See more

31 October 2011 at 17:54 · LikeUnlike · 2.Mohammed Majdi Aljamal dear sis, Allah never leave us alone, remember God in Prosperity he remembers you in the time of need, this is how thing work. as for ken i believe that the Samuni project actually was his tool to show people that here is your money, and a …propaganda for his campaign that is damn obvious but still those who have clear minds realizes that “what the tuck the money he had is enough to make a damn theme park not some swings an a couple of trees plus the whole bull he shows on the net” and that is the truthSee more

1 November 2011 at 06:29 · LikeUnlike · 1.Mary Shepard The problem is that he created a personality cult, and some of these cult members aren’t the most mentally healthy people in the world. Ken can do no wrong; questioning anything he does makes you an enemy who must be stopped. These nutcas…es who live their lives through Ken see anyone who doesn’t share their love for him as “zionist agents.” What bullshit, this isn’t a movie, it’s real life. It sure looks like he took money; all he has to do is show what he did with it, and I’ve got no problem with him, even though I can’t stand him personally.See more

1 November 2011 at 17:45 · LikeUnlike.Mohammed Majdi Aljamal even if he show that might be attempt not to redeem his sorry ass but to avoid further fuss in addition that he need to keep the trust flame lit in the hearts of his slaves and fans. just a filthy trick to stop any attempt to debate or crit…icize him. besides, if he was innocent then why he get so fuckin aggresive and start callin names and saying that is mossad and this is CIA this is pointless. if i have a missunderstanding with u then i discuss it with u personally or prove u r wrong somehow. the most extreme thing i might do is to make a hint or clame that u might the one who wanna steal money and u try to distract people’s eyes off u and direct them toward u this is what happens usually . but htis man is so sick in addition that he hide something filthy that makes his sop damn paranoid and start to expel some of his close circle like miss coco and many many moreSee more
2 November 2011 at 15:17 · LikeUnlike.Mary Shepard Cate Myles just posted as her status the following: At 10am Yesterday morning Ken Okeefe was arrested at one of his homes (he has

more than 1)..He was arrested in Wimbledon and has been charged with several offences in regards to stealin…g from Gaza..He is on bail until April next year while the investigation continues..Let this be a warning to anyone else who thinks Gaza is an easy target !!His bail conditions include not contacting or posting about witnesses or getting third parties to harass witness. MashAllah all xxSee more
2 November 2011 at 20:05 · LikeUnlike · 1.Mohammed Majdi Aljamal ya that is what i’m talkin about

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