CAIRO: Priest Boules Ewida accepted an invitation to attend "reconciliation iftar" Thursday at the Grand Nile Tower hotel to end a dispute that saw him take off his robes after allegedly being asked to do so by the hotel’s security staff.
The "reconciliation iftar" is supervised by Minister of Tourism Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour who ordered an investigation into the matter, which indicated that a misunderstanding occurred between Ewida and hotel security.
The hotel’s administration sent an official apology to the priest.
Ewida told Daily News Egypt that he accepted the invitation after he received a phone call from Abdel Nour asking him to attend.
"I accepted the invitation so the dispute is not misused. What happened is mistake that could be averted, we should not focus too much on it," Ewida said.
"It is enough that Ministry of Tourism cared about the issue, and the hotel apologized," he added.
"I did not intend to escalate the issue but someone filmed the incident and although he promised me to remove the video, I found it sent to satellite channels, which made the problem bigger," he added.
The incident, caught on closed circuit TV cameras, showed Ewida swiftly removing his robes and remaining in his underclothes for several minutes at the entrance of the hotel.
According to media reports, the hotel had summarily denied Father Ewida’s allegations, saying that a thorough investigation of the incident has revealed that Father Ewida was never requested at any point to remove his clothes.
