Blowing yourself up
There was a small terrorist attack in Cairo on Thursday (April 9, 2005). Before this and the other attack on a hotel in Taba, Egypt had been free of this menace for quit some time.
What does this mean? Well, i don't really care much for all those analysts talking about the blast and who did and so forth. Egypt is in a very tense and volatile region and while it is a very safe and stable country (security wise) some of the insanity going on in neighboring countries can, and will, spill over in Egypt from time to time. This is natural, no one can blame the government for that, they have done their best on the security front.
As i expected, Egyptian papers now are full of those calling on the Egyptian security apparatus to go after those responsible for the attack and "crush them." Interesting, i guess this means the security system will go after most of the country, including the government itself.
The underlying failure to combat extremist ideology lies squarely with the state. I can even go one step further and say that the state has, indirectly, encouraged extremist ideology.
When islamist groups began to strongly and violently to preach their hate in the 1970's (perhaps earlier) the state of course resorted to necessary degrees of violence to combat them, but it did not establish any kind of strategy to ideologically combat islamist thought. In order to take the spotlight from these groups (who flourished and still do among the poor and uneducated Egyptian masses), the state began preaching the religious message. Television and radio were filled with shows that instilled a medieval-like understanding of religion. The regime thought that the only way to combat these groups was to take away their religious mantle and carry it itself. Such stupidity was bound to come back and bite them in the ass and it did as terrorism and violence escalated during the 1980's, reacing its zenith during the first half of the 1990's.
At a time when groups like the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group (al-Gama'a al-Islamiya) where attacking foreigners, video clubs, bars, cinemas and anything else deemed "blasphemous and corrupting," one could see "state approved" sheikhs talking about the evils of western society, warning muslims not to mingle with such "corruption", working their congregation to a frenzy during Friday sermons as they denounced jews, Americans and basically any thing that was not moslem. Shows on Egyptian television attempted to deconstruct science and transform science into an affirmation of religius beliefs, no matter how rediculous such a notion is. The whole world became painted in religious colors.
Until this day, the Egyptian media continous in this manner. There is absolutely no strategy whatsoever to help in liberalizing Egyptian thought. The US and the West are the roots of all evil if one listens to Egyptian religious shows, whether on television or on the radio. Democracy, elections, human rights are all western inventions that cannot be implemented here in the Islamic world, or atleast must be "altered" to suit the "traditions and norms" or the Islamic world. This "us versus them" mentality that has plagued the islamic world for most of its history is ongoing and the media sees no use in changing that. The government seeks to boost its legitimacy by co-opting islamist thought, no matter how vile and backwards, instead of seeking ways to combat these ideologies.
The ruthless measures by the Egyptian government worked in crushing Islamist groups in 1990's, but it was only a temporary solution. There was no attempt at moderating, reforming or liberalizing the relegious message that the people hear. The media and the educational system system remained embedded in stories of religious fantasy, fanatics fighting the world on horesback, waving their blood-drenched swords in the air and the continous condemnation of the corruption of the "others"
A similar suicide blast in Iraq is seen my most (not all, most) as a heroic act of resistance, but when this happens here it is a horrific terrorist act. I do not see many intellectuals writing about the horrors that the are inflicted on innocent Iraqi civillians by the terrorist acts over there, i can even sense a hint of approval by some. Yet when the same happens here it is regarded as terrorism. What the hell is the difference? A civillian dying is a civillian dying, the presence of one of those "evil, crusading" foreigners next to him makes no difference.
Well, it has come to bite them in the ass again.
What does this mean? Well, i don't really care much for all those analysts talking about the blast and who did and so forth. Egypt is in a very tense and volatile region and while it is a very safe and stable country (security wise) some of the insanity going on in neighboring countries can, and will, spill over in Egypt from time to time. This is natural, no one can blame the government for that, they have done their best on the security front.
As i expected, Egyptian papers now are full of those calling on the Egyptian security apparatus to go after those responsible for the attack and "crush them." Interesting, i guess this means the security system will go after most of the country, including the government itself.
The underlying failure to combat extremist ideology lies squarely with the state. I can even go one step further and say that the state has, indirectly, encouraged extremist ideology.
When islamist groups began to strongly and violently to preach their hate in the 1970's (perhaps earlier) the state of course resorted to necessary degrees of violence to combat them, but it did not establish any kind of strategy to ideologically combat islamist thought. In order to take the spotlight from these groups (who flourished and still do among the poor and uneducated Egyptian masses), the state began preaching the religious message. Television and radio were filled with shows that instilled a medieval-like understanding of religion. The regime thought that the only way to combat these groups was to take away their religious mantle and carry it itself. Such stupidity was bound to come back and bite them in the ass and it did as terrorism and violence escalated during the 1980's, reacing its zenith during the first half of the 1990's.
At a time when groups like the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group (al-Gama'a al-Islamiya) where attacking foreigners, video clubs, bars, cinemas and anything else deemed "blasphemous and corrupting," one could see "state approved" sheikhs talking about the evils of western society, warning muslims not to mingle with such "corruption", working their congregation to a frenzy during Friday sermons as they denounced jews, Americans and basically any thing that was not moslem. Shows on Egyptian television attempted to deconstruct science and transform science into an affirmation of religius beliefs, no matter how rediculous such a notion is. The whole world became painted in religious colors.
Until this day, the Egyptian media continous in this manner. There is absolutely no strategy whatsoever to help in liberalizing Egyptian thought. The US and the West are the roots of all evil if one listens to Egyptian religious shows, whether on television or on the radio. Democracy, elections, human rights are all western inventions that cannot be implemented here in the Islamic world, or atleast must be "altered" to suit the "traditions and norms" or the Islamic world. This "us versus them" mentality that has plagued the islamic world for most of its history is ongoing and the media sees no use in changing that. The government seeks to boost its legitimacy by co-opting islamist thought, no matter how vile and backwards, instead of seeking ways to combat these ideologies.
The ruthless measures by the Egyptian government worked in crushing Islamist groups in 1990's, but it was only a temporary solution. There was no attempt at moderating, reforming or liberalizing the relegious message that the people hear. The media and the educational system system remained embedded in stories of religious fantasy, fanatics fighting the world on horesback, waving their blood-drenched swords in the air and the continous condemnation of the corruption of the "others"
A similar suicide blast in Iraq is seen my most (not all, most) as a heroic act of resistance, but when this happens here it is a horrific terrorist act. I do not see many intellectuals writing about the horrors that the are inflicted on innocent Iraqi civillians by the terrorist acts over there, i can even sense a hint of approval by some. Yet when the same happens here it is regarded as terrorism. What the hell is the difference? A civillian dying is a civillian dying, the presence of one of those "evil, crusading" foreigners next to him makes no difference.
Well, it has come to bite them in the ass again.
posted by Caliph at 10:37 AM
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