Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya
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Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Arabic: ألجماعه الاسلاميه ) (Arabic for "the Islamic Group"; also transliterated Gamaat Islamiya, Jamaat al Islamiya, al-Jamā'ah al-Islāmiyah etc.) is a militant Egyptian Islamist movement that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union [link]and Egyptian governments. The group is dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government and replacing it with an Islamic state.
The blind cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman is the spiritual leader of the movement. He was accused of conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 but was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his espousal of a subsequent conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks, including the United Nations and FBI offices. The Islamic Group has publicly threatened to retaliate against the United States unless Rahman is released from prison.
Attacks
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was responsible for:- 17 November 1997 – Luxor massacre at Deir el-Bahri, Luxor, Egypt. 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were killed.
- 28 April 1996 – Europa Hotel shooting, Cairo. 18 Greek tourists were killed.
- 19 November 1995 – Car bomb attack on the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. 16 people were killed.
- 26 June 1995 – attempt to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- 8 June 1992 – assassination of Farag Foda.
History
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya began as an umbrella organization for militant student groups, formed, like the Islamic Jihad, 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. Its membership has since become poorer, younger, and less well educated; its main base of recruiting and support has moved away from universities to poor neighborhoods of cities, and to rural areas.
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya may have been indirectly involved in the assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981 and was implicated in a failed attempt on president Hosni Mubarak in the 1990s.
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, who are an important part of the Egyptian economy, and thus of the livelihoods of the people on whom the group depends upon for support.
The 1991 murder 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. That, in turn, caused a major government crackdown, and the further radicalization of the group.
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya militants carried out the November 17, 1997 attack at the Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahri) in Luxor, in which a band of six men machine-gunned and hacked to death with knives 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians. The attack stunned Egyptian society, ruined the tourist industry for a number of years, and consequently sapped a large segment of popular support for violent Islamism in Egypt.
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 of 2006 the Egyptian government released 900 members of the militant group from prison. Its leader Najeh Ibrahim was among those freed.
External links
- [Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya] (CNS/MIIS)
- [Article about Islamist resistance in Egypt]
- [Article in the Economist about more recent developments]
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