Cairo: When he appeared inside an iron cage for his widely hyped lion fight, Al Syed Al Essawi looked confident of conquering the wild animal with the declared aim of reinvigorating Egyptian tourism.
While whipping up the interest of the local and foreign media for the fight held at the weekend in the delta town of Mansura, Al Essawi, 26, also raised the anger of animal rights groups, who accused him of cruelty.
“Those who call for showing mercy towards the lion should show similar care for the Palestinians being brutalised by Israel,” the young Egyptian declared from inside the cage, clad in armour and armed with a spear and a sword.
He stomped over an Israeli flag rolled out in the cage before the fight.
In publicising the controversial fight, which authorities refused to allow at the Pyramids near Cairo for security reasons, Al Essawi said his aim was to attract foreign tourists to Egypt whose economy has been in the doldrums due to recent turmoil following the ouster of long-standing president Hosni Mubarak.
But apart from correspondents of some foreign media and local friends, there were no foreigners around to watch the 17-minute spectacle.
Even those who attended felt disappointed and described it as a publicity ploy. The lion looked so exhausted, he did nothing other than roar at the man who claims supernatural powers.
“I can kill the lion now, but I leave him alive out of mercy and to emphasise that Islam is a religion of forgiveness,” Al Essawi told the media as he left the cage. “My message is that for anyone who thinks he is strong, there are others who are stronger.”
