I spent my childhood and youth in Nigeria, where my father worked as part of a medical mission to Africa. During my stay there, I witnessed many political and ethnic conflicts. The last of which led to our departure from the country. During these conflicts, people would riot in the streets, burn property and loot shops. As we lived through those times, we always used to compare the unsafe conditions of Nigeria with the safety of our home country, Egypt. Given the events that are currently unrolling in Egypt, perhaps we were a little hasty in making that comparison.