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 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

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

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 2012al-Qaeda.

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 el-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 his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

in 1981 is generally thought to have been carried out by another Islamist group,

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

, some have suggested al-Gamaa 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 ( ar, عمر عبد الرحمن), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist militant who served a life sent ...

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 movement formed a political party, the

Building and Development Party The Building and Development Party ( ar-at, حزب البناء والتنمية, Hizb el-Benaa wa el-Tanmia, alternatively translated as ''Construction and Development Party'') is an Islamist political party in Egypt. Initiated by the al-Gama ...

, which gained 13 seats in the 2011–2012 elections to the lower house of the

Egyptian Parliament The Parliament of Egypt is the bicameral legislature of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the House of Representatives). The Parliament is located in Cairo, Egypt's capital. Under th ...

.

History

Origins in universities

Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya began as an umbrella organization for Egyptian militant student groups, formed, like the

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

, after the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood 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 Marxists. 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 Gama'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 humans ...

of classes by gender.

Secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

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 el-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 his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

they now threatened it, passionately opposing what they believed was a "shameful peace with the Jews," aka the Camp David Accords 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 Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bri ...

, which was the scene of some of the most intense clashes between Islamists and their opponents (including security forces,

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...

s, and Copts), the president and other top administrators – who were Islamists – supported Gama'at demands to end mixed-sex classes and to reduce total female enrollment.Islamic Political Movements
from

Helen Chapin Metz Helen Chapin Metz (April 12, 1928 – May 13, 2011) was an American editor and Middle East analyst. Life Helen Chapin was born on April 12, 1928, in Peking, China. She was the daughter of diplomat Selden Chapin and Mary Paul Noyes. Her brother, ...

, ed. ''Egypt: A Country Study''. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1990. In other universities Gama'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 ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. 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 Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya 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 The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

under the leadership of

Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj ( ar, محمد عبد السلام فرج, ; 1954 – 15 April 1982) was an Egyptian radical Islamist and theorist. He led the Cairo branch of the Islamist group al-Jihad (also Tanzim al-Jihad) and made a significan ...

, formed a coalition with the Gama'a under the leadership of Karam Zuhdi, with both agreeing to follow the guidance of Sheikh

Omar Abdel-Rahman Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman ( ar, عمر عبد الرحمن), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist militant who served a life sent ...

. One of Faraj's groups was responsible for the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Following the assassination, Karam Zuhdi expressed regret for conspiring with

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

in the assassination, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. 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 ( ar, عمر عبد الرحمن), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist militant who served a life sent ...

was the spiritual leader of the movement. He was accused of participating in the

World Trade Center 1993 bombings The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas en ...

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 an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

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 (; 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, ...

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 (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

ic verse that Abdel Rahman had quoted at his trials while trying to explain his interpretation of jihad 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 Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya 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 Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

, the group staged a carefully planned

attempt on the life of President Mubarak The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

, led by

Mustafa Hamza Mustafa Hamza (born 1956) is an Egyptian commander of the military branch of the al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya. He was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court in the Returnees from Afghanistan case. It is believed he took part in the 1981 as ...

, a senior Egyptian member of the Al-Qaeda 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 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 Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya 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 Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya killing campaign climaxed with the attack at the Temple of

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: '' ḥꜣt- špswt'' "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, af ...

(

Deir el-Bahri Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) 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 ...

) in

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

, 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. "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 ( ar, عمر عبد الرحمن), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist militant who served a life sent ...

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 Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya: *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. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...

in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

,

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. *20 October 1995 – Car bomb attack on police station in Rijeka,

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. *28 April 1996 – a

mass shooting There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 20 ...

outside the Europa Hotel,

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, killing 17

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

tourists mistaken for Israelis. *17 November 1997 –

Luxor massacre The Luxor massacre was the killing of 62 people, mostly tourists, on 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahari, an archaeological site and major tourist attraction across the Nile from Luxor, Egypt. Attack Deir el-Bahari is one of Egypt's top tour ...

at

Deir el-Bahri Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) 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 ...

,

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

, 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 Al-Azhar Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأزهر, al-Jāmiʿ al-ʾAzhar, lit=The Resplendent Congregational Mosque, arz, جامع الأزهر, Gāmiʿ el-ʾazhar), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic ...

scholars, most of the leaders of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya 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 el-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 his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

, whom they assassinated, a martyr. Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya renounced bloodshed in 2003, and in September 2003 Egypt freed more than 1,000 members, citing what Interior Minister

Habib el-Adli Habib Ibrahim El-Adly ( ar, حبيب إبراهيم العادلي, ; born 1 March 1938) is a former Egyptian politician. He served as interior minister of Egypt from November 1997 to January 2011. He was the longest serving interior minister und ...

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, Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya established a political party, the

Building and Development Party The Building and Development Party ( ar-at, حزب البناء والتنمية, Hizb el-Benaa wa el-Tanmia, alternatively translated as ''Construction and Development Party'') is an Islamist political party in Egypt. Initiated by the al-Gama ...

. In August 2011, it presented 6,700 proxies (signatures) to the Egyptian political parties' committee on behalf of its party. In a statement the Gamaa said that any legislation drafted in Egypt after the revolution must refer to the sharia 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

Al-Nour Party ) , foundation = , newspaper = The New Light , headquarters = 601 Horrya Way, Zezenia, Alexandria , ideology = SalafismIslamismWahhabismMadkhalism , position = Far-right , colours = Blue, red, wh ...

. It gained 13 seats: 12 in Upper Egypt and one in Suez. In June 2013, Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi appointed Adel el-Khayat, a member of the group, as governor of

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

. 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, 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) 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 gama'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 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 and Eid al-adha.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, Al-Gama'at 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 Al-Gama'a Islamiyya 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 Al-Gama'a leader, Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim, Muhammad al-Hukaymah, appeared in the video and confirmed the unity move. However, Hukaymah acknowledged that other Al-Gama'a members had "backslid" from the militant course he was keeping to, and some Al-Gama'a representatives also denied that they were joining forces with the international Al-Qaeda network. Sheikh Abdel Akhar Hammad, a former Al-Gama'a leader, told Al-Jazeera: "If [some] brothers have joined, then this is their own personal view and I don't think that most Al-Gama'a members share that same opinion."

Foreign relations

;Designation as a terrorist organization Countries and organizations below have officially listed the Jamaa Islamia as a terrorist organization.

References

External links

Al-Ghuroba
(Followers of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah) * (Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies)
Article about Islamist resistance in EgyptArticle in the ''Economist'' about more recent developmentsal-Gama'a al Islam
home page

*[https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_wright The Rebellion Within] a ''The New Yorker, 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 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)

History

Origins in universities

Expansion

Crackdown

Assassination of president Anwar Sadat

Omar Abdel-Rahman

1990s terrorism campaign

Failed nonviolence initiative

Temple of Hatshepsut attack

Attacks

Renouncing terrorism

2011 revolution

Beliefs

Members allegedly allying with al-Qaeda

Foreign relations

See also

References

External links