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The Al-Gama`a al-Islamiyya's
History
Al-Gama`a al-Islamiyya, like most militant
Egyptian groups, began after Anwar Sadat released many Islamic prisoner's
from Egypt's jails in 1970. These groups remained on the margins,
but gained new adherents after Sadat signed the 1977 Camp David agreement
with Israel. Members of Al Gama, along with members of its ally Al
Islam, were implicated in the assassination of Sadat in 1981.
During the Mubarak regime, support for Islamic militant groups has
risen as the government has intensified the authoritarian policies
of its predecessors, and as economic hardship has swelled the ranks
of the disenfranchised. In 1992, Mubarak's government took control
of most of the nations mosques in an effort to stymie Islamic radicalism,
but this only served to harden the most extreme elements.
A series of attacks against Westerners, justified by their spread
of "immorality and secularism," culminated in the 1997 attack
at the temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor that killed over 60 mostly Swiss
and Japanese tourists. This followed an attack three months earlier
in which nine German tourists were shot dead while waiting in a bus
in front of Cairo's Egyptian Museum.
The Luxor attacks marked a turning point in the group's history. The
Egyptian government, fearing a drop in tourism, began a severe crackdown
on extremist groups, and Al-Gama`a al-Islamiyya issued a statement
stating that it would halt its attacks on westerners. A split in the
group had emerged though, and the extremist leader Rifa'i Taha Musa
issued a statement disavowing the cease-fire statement.
The attacks mostly stopped, but in late 2000, Taha Musa appeared in
a video with Bin
Laden and Ayman
al-Zawahiri threatening actions against the United States and
Israel. The cease-fire faction has disavowed any connection to bin
Laden and has not carried out any attacks since 1999. |
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What's Next:
Connected
Groups
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