(, "Islamic Group") is an Egyptian
Sunni
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
Islamist movement, and is considered a
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
organization by the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, but was removed from the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in May 2022. The group was dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government and replacing it with an
Islamic state
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...
. Following the
coup that toppled
Mohamed Morsi
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012
al-Qaeda
, image = Flag of Jihad.svg
, caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions
, founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden
, leaders = {{Plainlist,
* Osama bin Lad ...
.
Uppsala Conflict Data Program
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) is a data collection program on organized violence, based at Uppsala University in Sweden. The UCDP is a leading provider of data on organized violence and armed conflict, and it is the oldest ongoing data ...
, Conflict Encyclopedia, The al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya insurgency, viewed 2013-05-03, http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=50®ionSelect=10-Middle_East# The Egyptian government received support during that time from the United States.
The group(s) is said to have constituted "the Islamist movement's only genuine mass organizations" in Egypt.
[ Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt; the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 129, 1985, ] While the assassination of the Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...
in 1981 is generally thought to have been carried out by another Islamist group,
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, some have suggested was responsible for or at least related to the assassination. In 2003, the imprisoned leadership of the group renounced bloodshed, and a series of high-ranking members were released, and the group was allowed to resume semi-legal peaceful activities.
Then again some of its members were released in 2011. The imprisoned cleric
Omar Abdel-Rahman
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptians, Egyptian Islamist militant who served a Life imprisonment, life senten ...
was a spiritual leader of the movement, and the group actively campaigned for his release until his death in 2017.
Following the
Egyptian Revolution of 2011
The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution (;), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against ...
, the movement formed a political party, the
Building and Development Party, which gained 13 seats in the
2011–2012 elections to the lower house of the
Egyptian Parliament.
History
Origins in universities
began as an umbrella organization for Egyptian
militant
The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...
student groups, formed, like the
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, after the leadership of the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
renounced violence in the 1970s.
In its early days, the group was primarily active on university campuses, and was mainly composed of university students. Originally they were a minority in the Egyptian student movement which was dominated by leftist
Nasserists and
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
s. The leftists were strongly critical of the new
Sadat government, and urged Egypt to fight a war of revenge against Israel, while President Sadat wanted to wait and rebuild the military.
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 132] However, with some "discrete, tactical collaboration" with the government,
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 133] who sought a "useful counterweight" to its leftist opponents,
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 134] the group(s) began to grow in influence in 1973.
The Jama'at spread quite rapidly on campuses and won up to one-third of all student union elections. These victories provided a platform from which the associations campaigned for Islamic dress, the veiling of women, and the
segregation Segregation may refer to:
Separation of people
* Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space
* School segregation
* Housing segregation
* Racial segregation, separation of human ...
of classes by gender.
Secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
university administrators opposed these goals.
By March 1976, they were "dominant force"
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 141] in the student movement and by 1977 "they were in complete control of the universities and had driven the left organizations underground."
Expansion
Having once been favored by the Egyptian government of
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...
they now threatened it, passionately opposing what they believed was a "shameful peace with the Jews," aka the
Camp David Accords
The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retre ...
with Israel.
By 1979, they began to be harassed by the government but their numbers grew steadily.
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'' p. 149] In 1979, Sadat sought to diminish the influence of the associations through a law that transferred most of the authority of the student unions to professors and administrators. During the 1980s, however, Islamists gradually penetrated college faculties. At
Assiut University
Assiut University is a university located in Assiut, Egypt. It was established in October 1957 as the first university in Upper Egypt.
Statistics
*Faculty members: 2,442
*Assistant lecturers and demonstrators: 1,432
*Administrative staff: 11 ...
, which was the scene of some of the most intense clashes between Islamists and their opponents (including security forces,
secularists, and
Copts
Copts (; ) are a Christians, Christian ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptians, Egyptian population, des ...
), the president and other top administrators – who were Islamists – supported Jama'at demands to end mixed-sex classes and to reduce total female enrollment.
[. from Helen Chapin Metz, ed. ''Egypt: A Country Study''. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1990.] In other universities Jama'at also forbade the mixing of genders, films, concerts, and dances, and enforced their bans with clubs and iron bars.
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 151] From the universities the groups reached out to make new recruits, preaching in poor neighbourhoods of cities, and to rural areas.
and after a crackdown against them, inmates of Egyptian jails.
In April 1981, the group became involved in what was probably started as a clan feud/vendetta about livestock or property lines between
Coptic and Muslim Egyptians in the vicinity of
Minya, Egypt. The group believed in the position of tributary or
dhimmi for Christians in Egypt and opposed any signs of Coptic "arrogance" (istikbar), such as Christian cultural identity and opposition to an Islamic state. The group distributed a leaflet accusing Egypt's one Christian provincial governor (appointed by the government) of providing automatic weapons to Christians to attack Muslims, and the Sadat administration of following orders given by the United States.
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', pp. 156–66]
Crackdown
In June 1981, a brutal sectarian Muslim-Copt fight broke out in the poor
al-Zawaiyya Al Hamra district of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
. Over three days of fighting, 17 people were killed, 112 injured, and 171 public and private buildings were damaged. "Men and women were slaughtered; babies thrown from windows, their bodies crushed on the pavement below; there was looting, killing and arson."
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 166] Islamic Group(s) were accused of participating in the incident and in September 1981, one month before the assassination of Sadat, the were dissolved by the state (although they had never been legally registered in the first place), their infrastructure was destroyed and their leaders arrested.
Assassination of president Anwar Sadat
In 1980, the
Egyptian Islamic Jihad under the leadership of
Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj, formed a coalition with the Jama'at under the leadership of
Karam Zuhdi, with both agreeing to follow the guidance of Sheikh
Omar Abdel-Rahman
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptians, Egyptian Islamist militant who served a Life imprisonment, life senten ...
. One of Faraj's groups was responsible for the
assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Members in Asyut launched a rapidly suppressed
uprising two days after the assassination. Following the assassination,
Karam Zuhdi expressed regret for conspiring with
Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the assassination, according to the
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...
. Zuhdi was among the 900 militants who were set free in April 2006 by the Egyptian government.
Omar Abdel-Rahman
The cleric
Omar Abdel-Rahman
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptians, Egyptian Islamist militant who served a Life imprisonment, life senten ...
was the spiritual leader of the movement. He was accused of participating in the
World Trade Center 1993 bombings conspiracy, and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his espousal of a subsequent conspiracy to
bomb New York City landmarks, including the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
and
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
offices. The Islamic Group had publicly threatened to retaliate against the United States if Rahman was not released from prison. However, the group later renounced violence and their leaders and members were released from prison in Egypt.
Abdel-Rahman died on 18 February 2017.
1990s terrorism campaign
While the Islamic group had originally been an amorphous movement of local groups centered in
mosque
A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard.
Originally, mosques were si ...
s without offices or membership roll, by the late 1980s it became more organized and "even adopted an official logo: an upright sword standing on an open Qur'an with an orange sun rising in the background," encircled by the
Qur'an
The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...
ic verse that Abdel Rahman had quoted at his trials while trying to explain his interpretation of
jihad
''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...
to the judges:
وَقَاتِلُوهُمْ حَتَّى لاَ تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ وَيَكُونَ الدِّينُ لِلّهِ فَإِنِ انتَهَواْ فَلاَ عُدْوَانَ إِلاَّ عَلَى الظَّالِمِينَ
Fight them on until there is no more Tumult, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease, Let there be no hostility except to those who practise oppression.
This became the official motto of the group.
The 1990s saw engage in an extended campaign of violence, from the murders and attempted murders of prominent writers and intellectuals, to the repeated targeting of tourists and foreigners. Serious damage was done to the largest sector of Egypt's economy – tourism – and in turn to the government, but it also devastated the livelihoods of many of the people on whom the group depends for support.
Victims of campaign against the Egyptian state from 1992 to 1997 totaled more than 1200 and included the head of the counter-terrorism police (Major General Raouf Khayrat), a speaker of parliament (
Rifaat al-Mahgoub), dozens of European tourists and Egyptian bystanders, and over 100 Egyptian police.
The 1991 killing of the group's leader, Ala Mohieddin, presumably by security forces, led Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya to murder Egypt's speaker of parliament in retaliation. In June 1995, working together with
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group staged a carefully planned
attempt on the life of President Mubarak, led by
Mustafa Hamza, a senior Egyptian member of the
Al-Qaeda
, image = Flag of Jihad.svg
, caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions
, founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden
, leaders = {{Plainlist,
* Osama bin Lad ...
and commander of the military branch of the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. Mubarak escaped unharmed and retaliated with a massive and ruthless crackdown on GI members and their families in Egypt.
Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim
Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim (also spelled Qassim, ; born Nag Hammadi Qena Governorate), also known as Abu Talal al-Qasimi () (possibly executed in 1995), was the leader of Egypt's militant al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya (Gama'a Islamiyya) organization until he ob ...
was arrested in Croatia in 1995.
[ Mayer, Jane, '' The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals'', 2008. p. 113]
Failed nonviolence initiative
By 1997, the movement had become paralyzed. 20,000 Islamists were in custody in Egypt and thousands more had been killed by the security forces. In July of that year, Islamist lawyer Montassir al-Zayyat brokered a deal between the and the Egyptian government, called the Nonviolence Initiative, whereby the movement formally renounced violence. The next year the government released 2,000 members of the Islamic Group. After the initiative was declared Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman also gave his approval from his prison cell in the United States, though he later withdrew it.
The initiative divided the Islamic Group between members in Egypt who supported it and those in exile who wanted the attacks to continue. Leading the opposition was EIJ leader
Ayman Zawahiri who termed it "surrender" in angry letters to the London newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
Temple of Hatshepsut attack
Zawahiri enlisted
Ahmed Refai Taha, both exiles in Afghanistan with him, to sabotage the initiative with a massive terrorism attack that would provoke the government into repression. So on 17 November 1997 killing campaign climaxed with the attack at the Temple of
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut ( ; BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from until (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second c ...
(
Deir el-Bahri
Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri (, , ) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of the Theban Necropolis.
History
Deir el-Bahari, located on the west ...
) in
Luxor
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...
, in which a band of six men dressed in police uniforms machine-gunned and hacked to death with knives 58 foreign tourists and four
Egyptians
Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...
. "The killing went on for 45 minutes, until the floors streamed with blood. The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons." Altogether 71 people were killed. The attack stunned Egyptian society, devastated the tourist industry for a number of years, and consequently sapped a large segment of popular support for violent Islamism in Egypt.
The revulsion of Egyptians and rejection of jihadi terrorism was so complete, the attack's supporters backpedaled. The day after the attack, Refai Taha claimed the attackers intended only to take the tourists hostage, despite the evidence of the systematic nature of the slaughter. Others denied Islamist involvement completely. Sheikh
Omar Abdel-Rahman
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptians, Egyptian Islamist militant who served a Life imprisonment, life senten ...
blamed Israelis for the killings, and Zawahiri maintaining the Egyptian police had done it.
When Refai Taha signed the al-Qaeda fatwa "International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders" to kill Crusaders and Jews on behalf of the Islamic Group, he was "forced to withdraw his name" from the fatwa, explaining to fellow members ... than he had "only been asked over the telephone to join in a statement of support for the Iraqi people."
Attacks
Major attacks by :
*8 June 1992 – assassination of
Farag Foda.
*26 June 1995 – attempt to
assassinate Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...
in
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...
,
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
.
*20 October 1995 –
Car bomb attack on police station in
Rijeka
Rijeka (;
Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...
,
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
.
*28 April 1996 – a
mass shooting
A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...
outside the Europa Hotel,
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
, killing 17
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
tourists mistaken for Israelis.
*17 November 1997 –
Luxor massacre at
Deir el-Bahri
Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri (, , ) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of the Theban Necropolis.
History
Deir el-Bahari, located on the west ...
,
Luxor
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...
, Egypt. 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians killed.
It was also responsible for a spate of tourist shootings (trains and cruise ships sprayed with bullets) in middle and upper Egypt during the early 1990s. As a result of those attacks, cruise ships ceased sailing between Cairo and Luxor.
Renouncing terrorism

After spending more than two decades in prison and after intense debates and discussions with
Al-Azhar scholars, most of the leaders of have written several books renouncing their ideology of violence and some of them went as far as calling ex-Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...
, whom they assassinated, a martyr.
renounced bloodshed in 2003, and in September 2003 Egypt freed more than 1,000 members, citing what Interior Minister
Habib el-Adli called the group's stated "commitment to rejecting violence."
Harsh repressive measures by the Egyptian government and the unpopularity of the killing of foreign tourists have reduced the group's profile in recent years but the movement retains popular support among Egyptian Islamists who disapprove of the secular nature of Egypt's society and peace treaty with Israel.
In April 2006, the Egyptian government released approximately 1,200 members from prison, including a founder, Nageh Ibrahim.
Reportedly, there have been "only two instances where members showed signs of returning to their former violent ways, and in both cases they were betrayed by informants within their own group."
2011 revolution
Following the 2011 Revolution, established a political party, the
Building and Development Party. In August 2011, it presented 6,700 proxies (signatures) to the Egyptian political parties' committee on behalf of its party. In a statement the Jama'at said that any legislation drafted in Egypt after the revolution must refer to the
sharia
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
of God, "who blessed us with this revolution. We believe that the suffering we endured during the past years was due to neglecting religion and putting those who don't fear
odin power." It also stated that "Islam can contain everyone and respects the freedom of followers of other religions to refer to their own sharia in private affairs."
The Building and Development Party contested the
2011–2012 elections to the
People's Council, the lower house of the Egyptian parliament, as part of the Islamic Alliance which was led by the
salafi
The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...
Al-Nour Party. It gained 13 seats: 12 in
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...
and one in
Suez
Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...
.
In June 2013, Egypt's president
Mohammed Morsi appointed Adel el-Khayat, a member of the group, as governor of
Luxor
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...
. el-Khayat resigned within a week of his appointment due to public unrest related to the group's commission of the 1997 massacre in Luxor.
Beliefs
One scholar studying the group,
Gilles Kepel, found that the group repeatedly used the name of radical Islamist theorist
Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb (9 October 190629 August 1966) was an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary who was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
As the author of 24 books, with around 30 books unpublished for differe ...
, and often quoted from his manifesto, ''
Ma'alim fi al-Tariq'' (Milestones), in their leaflets and newsletters. They emphasized the right to legislate belongs to God alone; and that divine unity (
tawhid
''Tawhid'' () is the concept of monotheism in Islam, it is the religion's central and single most important concept upon which a Muslim's entire religious adherence rests. It unequivocally holds that God is indivisibly one (''ahad'') and s ...
) in Islam signifies liberation (tahrir) from all that is corrupt in thought – including the liberation of all that is inherited or conventional, like customs and traditions.
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', pp. 155–56]
There was a scant supply of any writing by the group's members, but some issues leading writer(s) of the Jama'at thought worth mentioning included:
* Youth must be taught that Islam was ''nizam kamil wa shamil'' (a complete and perfect system) and must regulate government and war, the judicial system and the economy.
* Egypt's disastrous
1967 War was the result of following
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...
rather than Islam.
* Signs of the growth of an Islamic movement were the wearing of the veil by women and the white gallabieh and untrimmed beard by men, early marriage, and attendance at public prayers on the major Muslim festivals,
Eid al-Fitr
Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main Islamic holidays, festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide becaus ...
and
Eid al-adha
Eid al-Adha () is the second of the two main festivals in Islam alongside Eid al-Fitr. It falls on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijja, the twelfth and final month of the Islamic calendar. Celebrations and observances are generally carried forward to the ...
.
[Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', pp. 153–54]
While secularist social analyses of Egypt's socioeconomic problems maintained that poverty was caused by overpopulation or high defense expenditures, saw the cause in the populace's spiritual failures – laxness, secularism, and corruption. The solution was a return to the simplicity, hard work, and self-reliance of earlier Muslim life.
Members allegedly allying with al-Qaeda
Deputy leader of al-Qaeda
Ayman al-Zawahiri announced a new alliance with a faction of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. In a video released on the internet on 5 August 2006.
Zawahiri said "We bring good tidings to the Muslim nation about a big faction of the knights of uniting with Al-Qaeda," and the move aimed to help "rally the Muslim nation's capabilities in a unified rank in the face of the most severe crusader campaign against Islam in its history." An leader,
Muhammad al-Hukaymah, appeared in the video and confirmed the unity move. However, Hukaymah acknowledged that other members had "backslid" from the militant course he was keeping to, and some representatives also denied that they were joining forces with the international Al-Qaeda network. Sheikh Abdel Akhar Hammad, a former leader, told Al-Jazeera: "If
omebrothers have joined, then this is their own personal view and I don't think that most members share that same opinion."
Foreign relations
;Designation as a terrorist organization
Countries and organizations below have officially listed as a terrorist organization.
See also
*
Terrorism in Egypt
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war a ...
*
List of designated terrorist organizations
Several national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and former ...
References
External links
Al-Ghuroba(Followers of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah)
* (Center for Nonproliferation Studies,
Monterey Institute of International Studies
Established in 1955, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies, located in Monterey, California, is a graduate institute and satellite campus of Middlebury C ...
)
Article about Islamist resistance in EgyptArticle in the ''Economist'' about more recent developmentsal-Gama'a al Islamhome page
*
ttps://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_wright The Rebellion Withina ''
New Yorker'' article about terrorists renouncing violence, with significant attention paid to the Islamic Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jama'a al-Islamiyya, Al-
Jihadist groups in Egypt
Anti-Americanism
Anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt
Organizations designated as terrorist by Canada
Organisations designated as terrorist by the European Union
Organizations designated as terrorist by Israel
Organizations designated as terrorist by Russia
Qutbist organisations
Salafi Jihadist groups
Organizations designated as terrorist by the United Arab Emirates
Organisations designated as terrorist by the United Kingdom
Organizations designated as terrorist by the United States
Organizations based in Africa designated as terrorist
Organisations of the Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014)