Naguib Sawiris: A billionaire trying to give Egyptians more freedom

In Canada, Naguib Sawiris is perhaps best known as the man financing upstart Canadian wireless provider Wind Mobile. In Egypt, however, he is known as the country’s richest man and most prominent Christian.

During the revolution that ousted president Hosni Mubarak from office, the 57-year-old founder of Orascom Telecom Holding played a pivotal role, negotiating between the army and the revolutionaries in a volatile vacuum of power. He subsequently founded the Free Egyptians, a liberal, secular political party that – according to the polls – will lose to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s parliamentary elections on Nov. 28.

Mr. Sawiris says he harbours no political ambition himself, but finds the prospect of an Islamic party governing Egypt frightening. On Thursday, he spoke with The Globe And Mail to explain why.

You have very strong beliefs about the future of your country but you won’t run for Parliament. Why is that?

I lead a very unorthodox lifestyle. I am not a serious guy when it comes to my private life. If I go into politics I would have to be a totally different person. I am providing financing and organizational capacity for others to run to protect my rights to have an unorthodox lifestyle. To go grab a Scotch, to look at beautiful women, to do what I want. If you want to go to the mosque, go to the mosque. If you want to go to the church, go to the church. If you want to go to the bar and have a drink, go to the bar and have a drink. I don’t like any restrictions.

Regardless of politics, you have a huge public profile, a lot of Twitter followers. I have to ask about the cartoon you posted a few months ago that caused such controversy: Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie Mouse in a niqab. Why did you do that? Why did you apologize?

Because it was a very stupid thing to do. If I was a Muslim and I made that joke it might have passed, but as a Christian it could be interpreted as though you are mocking another religion. When you do something stupid you have to apologize. I am absolutely not anti-Islamic. I had no idea that I would be offending Islam.

All the polls indicate The Muslim Brotherhood will win these elections. How will the secular movement move forward?

The competition is not really fair. These liberal parties are six months old. The Muslim Brotherhood, they’ve been there for years. They own infrastructure and they are being funded by Qatar by a hundred million dollars that came to them during the revolution. The fight is not fair. Our party and the liberals will be in the next Parliament too. They will not be in a majority but they will be present. They will be the opposition. They will fight against a religious state. If we have to go to the streets, we will.

What is your assessment of post-revolutionary Egypt?

I feel like we did this revolution and the outcome is not what we expected. Unless something happens to put us back on the right track, we will all be sorry. The whole West from Mr. Obama to Mr. Cameron to Mr. Sarkozy are just watching this so-called Arab Spring as bystanders. There is chaos now. We have no security. There are strikes every day. People take the law in their hand. The hotels are empty. The stock exchange has crashed. Our reserves are depleting and you have the threat of this whole area turning into another Iran. If you watch a small problem, it becomes a massive problem. If you ask me what the West should have done, they should have come to us and helped us out.