INDEPENDENCE, Va. — A local business is suffering after rumors about its owners, who hail from Egypt, circulated throughout the area.
Ehab Ibrahim, manager of Ciro's Pizza, said in an interview earlier this week that his business has dropped off as much as 50 percent after untrue rumors circulated about his business. Rumors included ideas that the businessmen had foreknowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks on America, that they were arrested for partaking in terrorist actions and even that they were working on biological agents in the basement of their business.
"These are all lies," Ibrahim said. "I never thought something like this was going to happen. All of a sudden people were trying to get away from me, like they were scared of me. Half of the people in this area are my friends."
Ibrahim said that as much as 20 percent of his business comes from Sparta.
While Ibrahim and his family are practicing Muslims, they disavow any connection with terrorists.
However, Ibrahim said he is no stranger to terrorism — from the side of the victim — in fact, his country was one of the first nations that fell under attack from Muslim fundamentalists. Anwar Sadat, Egypt's president, was assassinated by the Islamic Jihad in the 1970s and the Egyptians have been working to eradicate terrorist groups ever since, typically sentencing them to death.
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