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(CNN) -- Richard Quest interviewed the owner of Harrods department store and Egyptian business tycoon Mohammed al-Fayed on his life, his health and his work.
QUEST: I hear you lead an international lifestyle?
AL-FAYED: Who told you that? It is just a type of simple life, I do not think I am living an international life or moving, I am just a person who is human, down to earth enjoying life -- whatever god blesses you with. Enjoying life for me is just normal.
QUEST: How long have you lived in the UK?
AL-FAYED: I have lived here for 35 years, I have given basically most of my real life for this country. And it is my country it is my home. But unfortunately I live in a country where I feel sorry for the ordinary people and the masses of the people who live in this country. Their destiny and their human rights are kidnapped by gangsters and people who call themselves the establishment, who are still racist at the core.
QUEST: Are you leaving the UK for tax purposes?
AL-FAYED: You think I would leave the country because of tax? I have paid hundreds of millions in taxes in the last 35 years. Last year I paid 125 million in tax, on my business -- on the people I employ. I employ 8,000 people in this country. In Harrods I employ only 5,000 people. And I have contributed a lot of effort here.
QUEST: So why did you go to court over your taxes?
AL-FAYED: It was not my choice. I have been forced into this situation. I am one of say ten thousand people that have a tax arrangement where you do not pay tax on your overseas businesses. I brought huge capital that I invested in this country. I brought millions worth of export business, and I bought this to the UK on the guarantee that I do not pay tax on my overseas business.
Just to destabilized my business, to destabilize my family life they cancelled this agreement. They singled me, only me, out of basically 10,000 people. Most of them do not want to contribute to the economy, to anything.
QUEST: So what has happened?
AL-FAYED: These tax changes have only been implemented on me nobody else. Why they have singled me, out of basically thousands of other people that have the same arrangements I have, I do not know. It is because of what happened to my son and Princess Diana. I am challenging them I am saying you bastards -- you killed my son and Princess Diana. They know I am not keeping quiet until I find who did this.
It is basically all to do with racism. You still find the upper class or the elite here who rule this country behind the scenes. You do not think you live in a real democracy, because still you have a special type of government department like the Intelligence service that are above the law. You cannot invoke them, they can do anything and they still do. They get away with anything and they have, they murdered my son and Princess Diana. This is why, since the tragedy, I have had all these hassles -- cancelling my tax arrangements is just part of it.
QUEST: What of Fulham and British citizenship?
AL-FAYED: I have no battles for Fulham, I have no battles for citizenship, because you know, citizenship is something that you can apply for. It is part of, you know -- comfort. In this country, I have given 35 years to, I have 13,000 people working for me. I brought in this money to invest I am not just some asylum seeker who is asking for cash
Applying for British citizenship is just a formality. I am still proud, to have an Egyptian passport. My Egyptian nationality is above everything. It is the greatest civilization.
QUEST: Is it a nature of life? If you succeed, you would have to struggle, do you think?
AL-FAYED: Of course -- you find a lot of people who are envious and jealous. They do not accept you as a foreigner, or an Egyptian in the UK or to own the greatest department store in the world. In business normally this is the nature of life.
QUEST: It must hurt. It must hurt. There must be moments when it hurts?
AL-FAYED: The most important thing for me is health -- you wake up in the morning you can breathe and you can walk. You share this with people. I sleep at night I do not think about anything. I put everything in my bag and go to sleep. Whatever you can do to me it does not affect me. I started my life, my own life. I did not inherit it.
QUEST: I suspect that you are neither as rich as some people say nor as poor as some people say...
AL-FAYED: But it does not affect me, you can take everything from me today and I can sit in Hyde Park and have a sandwich and I am healthy and happy. It does not affect me -- you give it to me or you take it away. I nationalised all my business in 1961 and there was little left for me after all the hard work. But if you feel that you cannot live in your country and you cannot enjoy giving to your people and a country that you are proud to be part of, it is very difficult you know. And I started all over again. The most important thing is God's blessing and if you believe in God and you believe in yourself, you have nothing to worry about.
QUEST: Let us talk about Fulham. It has done well since you bought it. It cost you a lot of money. Are you seeing the success you would have hoped to see there bearing in mind the investment that you have made?
AL-FAYED: I am a great football player. I had my own club when I was 14 years old. Football is in my blood and I have been a fan of Fulham for the last 30 years. I was living alongside the club 30 years ago. I saw the club was going downhill, and would close down. The last person who really wanted to see it go bankrupt called me and said I know you are a Fulham fan can you please do something because it is your favorite club. So the guy was in a problem, I shook hands with him and took over the club in 24 hours and started building it again.
QUEST: Are you prepared to put more money into it?
AL-FAYED: Yes, but it is an addiction -- like gambling, like smoking, like anything and if it is in your blood and it is my own club, I need to invest.
QUEST: Do you think that you can buy sporting success as Roman Abramovich has tried to do with Chelsea?
AL-FAYED: Yes, but it is different. You cannot compare Roman Abramovich with me. You know he got this wealth out of the blue you know, he never worked hard for it. It is just the situation that happened in Russia.
QUEST: Are you bitter over the death of your son Dodi?
AL-FAYED: I am a grieved father not bitter. But any loving father who loses a child will fight if they believe this is not God's wish -- it is some gangster who committed this horrendous crime.
QUEST: What if you are wrong? What if the establishment did not have anything to do with the death of your son Dodi and Princess Diana? What if it was an accident?
AL-FAYED: It was not an accident because the person that was driving the car was working for me. And I discovered from a very important member of MI6 that Henry Paul was on their pay roll.
QUEST: You have had a lot of misery. But you are a very wealthy man. People who do not have money believe that money can bring happiness.
AL-FAYED: Money or no money, it is a matter of principle. It is a matter of -- how can a child be taken away from you? It is not God's wish. Whether I lose everything, just to get the gangster and the terrorist who committed such a horrendous crime. I'm not doing it just for me, but I am doing it also for the children of Diana.
QUEST: Are you going to sell Harrods?
AL-FAYED: Harrods is not for sale. Harrods is my pyramid. This is the rumor that the establishment puts out from time to time. I am going to leave the country. I have been forced to leave because they cannot settle my tax agreement. But it is my country -- I am going nowhere. I am fighting the Inland Revenue up until now.
