Associated Press
SHARQIYA: Scores of mourners and women in black swarmed around a minibus that brought the coffin of the young Egyptian scholar, killed in the Virginia Tech massacre that claimed 32 lives, home for burial on Saturday.
Waleed Mohammed Shaalan s body arrived aboard an Egypt Air flight from New York, according to an airport official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Several of Shaalan s family members were at the airport, including his father and uncle, who accompanied the body from the airport. The body was then transported to his hometown of Sharqiya, in the north Nile Delta province that bears the same name, to be buried.
Sharqiya townspeople flocked to the gates of the Shalaan family home, many chanting, No God but Allah, and Terrorism is the enemy of God, as the coffin was taken off the bus and carried into the family s two-floor house in a green, leafy area.
With blood and soul, we redeem you Waleed, many wailed when the body was later taken to a nearby mosque for prayers and then to the graveyard near the family house.
Shaalan, who was credited with acting to save a fellow student during the crisis, had called home a day before Monday s massacre and said he intended to visit Egypt next month to bring his wife and 15-month-old son back with him to Virginia.
He had been at Virginia Tech university since August studying for a Ph.D. in civil engineering. Shaalan, age 32, obtained his bachelor and master s degrees in civil engineering from Zagaziq University. He worked at a government research center before receiving a scholarship to study at Virginia Tech.
