At 1:50 PM EET on 24 November 2017, the al-Rawda

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

was attacked by roughly 40 gunmen during Friday prayers. The mosque is located in the village of Al-Rawda east of the town of

Bir al-Abed Bir al-Abed ( ar, بئر العبد, biʾr al-ʿabd; arz, بير العبد) is one of the cities of North Sinai in the north east of Egypt. It is the capital of Bir al-Abd Markaz, located on the international coastal road on the shores of Lake ...

in Egypt's North Sinai Governorate. It is one of the main mosques associated with the

Jaririya Jaririya is a Sufi order, one of the largest Sufi orders in North Sinai. The Jaririya order is named for its founder, Sheikh Eid Abu Jarir, who was a member of the Sawarka tribe and the Jarira clan, and established the order in Sinai in the 1940s. ...

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

order, one of the largest

Sufi orders A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking ''haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth". ...

in North Sinai. The Jaririya order is named for its founder, Sheikh

Eid Abu Jarir Eid Abu Jarir ( ar, عيد أبو جرير; 1910-1971) was a Sufi shaykh who founded the eponymous Jaririya Sufi order in Sinai, Egypt. Alongside his teacher Abu Ahmed al-Ghazawi, who founded the Alawi-Ahmadi tariqah, he is considered one of the ...

, who was a member of the Sawarka tribe and the Jarira clan. The Jarira clan resides in the vicinity of Bir al-Abed. The attack killed 311 people and injured at least 128, making it the deadliest attack in Egyptian history. It was the second-deadliest

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

attack of 2017, after the Mogadishu bombings on 14 October. The attack was universally condemned by many world leaders and organizations.

Attack

Al-Rawda Mosque, which is located on Sinai's main coastal highway connecting the city of

Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...

to Gaza, belongs to the local Jarir clan, of the Sawarka tribe, who follow the Jaririya (Gaririya) Sufi orderHigazy, Mourad (24 November 2017).
Update: 305 dead, 128 injured in deadliest militant attack in Egyptian history
. '' Mada Masr''. madamasr.com. Retrieved 25 November 2017.—an offshoot of the movement of Abu Ahmed al-Ghazawi, of the broader

Darqawa The Darqawiyya or Darqawi Sufi order is a revivalist branch of the Shadhiliyah brotherhood which originated in Morocco. The Darqawa comprised the followers of Sheikh Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi (1760–1823) of Morocco. The movement, which became ...

order. The mosque is on the road between

El Arish ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Mediter ...

and Bir al-Abed. The mosque has a smaller zawiyah, a Sufi lodge, attached. According to local media, attackers in four off-road vehicles planted three bombs; the attackers used the burning wrecks of cars to block off escape routes. After their detonation, they launched rocket propelled grenades and opened fire on worshippers during the crowded Friday prayer at al-Rawda near Bir al-Abed. When ambulances arrived to transport the wounded to hospitals, the attackers opened fire on them as well, having selected ambush points from which to target them. Local residents quickly responded, bringing the wounded to hospitals in their own cars and trucks, and even taking up weapons to fight back.

Casualties

311 people were killed in the attack, including 27 children, and at least 128 other people were wounded. Many of the victims worked at a nearby salt factory and were at the mosque for Friday prayers.

Responsibility

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, although there were reports that the attack appeared to be the work of

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

's Wilayat Sinai branch. On 25 November, the Egyptian public prosecutor's office, citing interviews with survivors, said the attackers brandished the

Islamic State flag The jihadist flag is a flag commonly used by various Islamist and Islamic fundamentalist movements as a symbol of jihad. It usually consists of a black background with a white text of the ''shahada'' (Islamic creed) emblazoned across it in call ...

Islamist militants ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term t ...

have been active in the

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

since July 2013, killing at least 1,000 Egyptian security forces personnel. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', in January 2017 an interview of an insurgent commander in Sinai appeared in issue five of the Islamic State magazine '' Rumiyah'', where the commander condemned Sufi practices and identified the district where the attack occurred as one of three areas where Sufis live in Sinai that Islamic State intended to "eradicate." The community had been repeatedly threatened to refrain from Sufi practices.

Jund al-Islam Jund al-Islam is an active armed insurgent group affiliated with al-Qaeda operating primarily in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Background The group was established in 2011 shortly after the fall of the Libyan government led by Muammar Gaddafi and esta ...

, an

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

-linked

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

group in Sinai who were formerly affiliated with ISIL, declared their innocence and condemned the attack on the al-Rawda mosque.

Reactions

Egypt declared three days of

national mourning A national day of mourning is a day or days marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the death or funeral of ...

following the attack. Egyptian President

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...

said the attack "shall not go unpunished". The President also ordered the government to allocate funds for compensating families of the dead. The

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

wrote on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

that it "condemns in the strongest words" the attack and that those responsible should "renounce extremism and violence".

Al-Azhar University , image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Al-Azhar University portal , motto = , established = *970/972 first foundat ...

, Egypt's oldest accredited university, issued a statement condemning the attacks, adding "terrorism will be routed". One week after the attack, Grand Imam of al-Azhar

Ahmed el-Tayeb Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb ( ar, أحمد محمد أحمد الطيب) (born 6 January 1946) is an Egyptian Islamic scholar and the current Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Al-Azhar Al Sharif and former president of al-Azhar University. He was appoin ...

, along with Grand Mufti Shawki Allam and Religious Endowments Minister Mokhtar Gomaa, performed Friday prayers at al-Rawda mosque. The attack was widely condemned by the international community, with many world leaders issuing official statements and

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

posts.

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

declared one day of national mourning on 27 November. The

Supreme Council for Sufi Orders Supreme may refer to: Entertainment * Supreme (character), a comic book superhero * ''Supreme'' (film), a 2016 Telugu film * Supreme (producer), hip-hop record producer * "Supreme" (song), a 2000 song by Robbie Williams * The Supremes, Motown-e ...

cancelled street celebrations of

Mawlid Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi ash-Sharif or Eid Milad un Nabi ( ar, المولد النبوي, translit=mawlid an-nabawī, lit=Birth of the Prophet, sometimes simply called in colloquial Arabic , , among other vernacular pronunciations; sometimes , ) ...

throughout Egypt as a sign of mourning. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights strongly condemned the attacks, and weeks later issued a report that considered the massacre an attempt of genocide against the Sufi Muslim community of the Sinai Peninsula. EOHR also called upon the Egyptian government to provide adequate protection for minorities. A three-day opening of the border crossing into Gaza from Rafah, Egypt, scheduled for 25–27 November, was cancelled due to security concerns. The

Cairo International Film Festival The Cairo International Film Festival ( ar, مهرجان القاهرة السينمائي الدولي) is an annual internationally accredited film festival held in Cairo Opera House. It was established in 1976 and has taken place every year sin ...

stated in a press release its intention to continue with the festival, and condemned the attacks. The

Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality ( he, עיריית תל אביב-יפו) is the arm of local government responsible for the administration of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality handles such municipal affairs as education, cu ...

building, the

Library of Birmingham A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, the Kuwait Towers and the CN Tower were illuminated with the colors of the

Egyptian flag The national flag of Egypt (Arabic: ) is a tricolour consisting of the three equal horizontal red, white, and black bands of the Egyptian revolutionary flag that dates back to the 1952 Egyptian Revolution. The flag bears Egypt's national em ...

as a sign of solidarity. The lights of the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...

were extinguished as well. The Royal Hashemite Court flew the Jordanian flag at half-mast.

Military response

President el-Sisi vowed to respond with "the utmost force". In the days immediately after the attack the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

announced that it had pursued and destroyed of some of the militants' vehicles and weapons stocks. Airstrikes were also conducted in the neighboring mountains. In February 2018, Egypt responded to this attack with major air strikes and land assaults against terrorist positions in Sinai.

References