Mohamed's Jail Cell Stark Contrast To Elite Home Life

So much for Terrorist driven by poverty thoery.

By LIAM STACK Special to the Tribune
Published: Sep 15, 2007

CAIRO, EGYPT - The Heliopolis Club is an oasis of leafy green calm in the heart of the congested but upscale Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.
The address is one of the city's most elite. It is home to gracious villas with luxury cars parked out front, boutiques that sell Gucci head scarves and the heavily guarded palace of President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt with an iron fist since 1981.
It is also home to the family of Ahmed Mohamed, a 26-year-old student at the University of South Florida, now in the Falkenburg Road Jail, indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of trying to help terrorists by aiding, teaching and demonstrating the use of an explosive device as well as transporting explosives.
Organizations like the Heliopolis Club are an institution in the life of upper-class Egyptians, who can slip inside their gates to escape from the noise and crowding of this city of 18 million.
Few are allowed inside those gates. Membership in such social clubs is hereditary, with children inheriting from parents and spouses marrying into them from families less well-connected.
Inside, children run around jungle gyms and teenagers lounge by the pool while their parents mingle over buffet lines or a game of golf or croquet.
To enroll as a new member, a family must fork over a lump sum of $10,000 and pay an annual fee; this in a country where the average annual income hovers around $800.