“The Black Box”… Abdul Rahim Ali and years of confrontation (1)

Writing history about people records the history of certain time periods as well, especially if the journey was rich in events and intellectual confrontations.

Some people refuse to pass without making a name and writing their own lines in the book of the homeland, and putting their signature that they did everything in their power and sacrificed their souls for the sake of our country.

The story did not start as I took an oath as a deputy representing the people, but with an oath that I kept on taking since I was a young child in a house in Upper Egypt that is educated on strictness and that has raised its children on refusing injustice and bearing fate while preserving their dignity and pride.

Then a young man from Upper Egypt who refuses to confine words in his chest, so he shouts them off with his colleagues, until they saved from their own money to found a magazine to express their voices, in the face of strong winds of extremism crawling towards Upper Egypt, dragging lean years that erode the fortunes of the country.

The Beginning Magazine

A non-periodic publication in the form of a "magazine" that came out in Minya, titled "The Beginning", which was written by the pens of a group of elite intellectuals, namely Dr. Abdul Rahim Ali, Dr. Ahmed Al -Saadani, Kamel Al-Sawy, Shatby Youssef, Abdul Hakim Haider, Mohamed Medani, Dr. Mounir Fawzy, Adel Al-Dawi, and Editor-in-Chief Mustafa Bayoumi.

Correspondent for Al-Ahaly newspaper in Minya

At that time, Upper Egypt was a hotbed for terrorism,.. many terrorist leaders came out of this area. Everyone woke up one day to the voice of sedition, bullets, blood and the famous bloody events known as the events of "Sanbo".

The young man, who did not yet turn thirty, Abdel Rahim, who worked as a corresponded for Al-Ahaly newspaper and member of the Tagammu Party finds his way to prove himself, so he stands two steps away from writing poetry, and advances ten steps forward as a journalist specializing in terrorism affairs.

His work did not stop at seeking facts on the ground, but he opened a new field for himself when he insisted on making dialogues with terrorist leaders, some of whom were fleeing in the Assiut desert.

He asks for permission from the newspaper and the party to conduct the interview and obtains approval, and by virtue of the strong family ties and connections in Upper Egypt and under the guarantee of a People's Assembly member and an elder of a famous family in Dairout, the eyes of the young correspondent were blindfolded, and he was transferred through the desert to reach the fugitives to get his interview and then gets back under their protection to the city before the sun rises.

Arrest Warrant

It was the first experience of its kind in the Egyptian and Arab press ... It is true that it was imitated twenty years later when satellite channels interviewed Bin Laden in Afghanistan, but the difference here remains that we are facing a reporter with a very limited capabilities and resources who managed to carry out a difficult task.

However, the shock came after the publication of the investigation carried out by the young reporter, as he got arrested for mentioning that he witnessed the wanted terrorists penetrating the security crowds and they were armed.

When he asked the security director, Major General Nabil Ubada, why he was not ordering their arrest, he said, “If I did, it would be a massacre!” Which opted the minister to deny these words and give his orders to arrest Abdul Rahim Ali, and the young editor entered a new adventure.