Egypt Blasts: A Lot of Question Marks














Guest Name Dr. Amr El-Shobky, Egyptian expert in Al-Ahram center for political and strategic studies, Cairo. 
Subject Egypt Blasts: A Lot of Question Marks
Date Thursday,Apr 27 ,2006
Time Makkah
From
… 22:00…To… 00:00
GMT
From
… 19:00…To…21:00
















 
Name
Editor    – 
Profession
Question

Answer


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Name
Maleha    – 
Profession
Question Do you think the Blasts were a reaction made by bedouins who were exposed to oppression by the security after Taba blasts ?

Answer
I think that the bad treatment after Taba blasts, october 2004, when arrested people were 4001 and all organizations assured that bedouins were terribly treated, this created a suitable atmosphere for terrorism and revenge from the state especailly that the new radical cells are more affected by the social atmosphere and try to cover itself with an ideological cover while the real motive behind their actions is revenge.
















 
Name
Jano    – Egypt
Profession
Question
What can the timing of these explosion signal, especially when Egypt celebrates Sinai Day ?


Answer
I think there is a will to humiliate Egypt, this is not the first time it happened before. The message to the system and regime is very clear.

















 
Name
Abdullah    – 
Profession
Question
Do you think that Hosni Mubarak feels threatened that his throne is being shaked?

Answer

I do not see that terrorism can help in destroying a system, on the contrary it helps strenghten it. I think the regime is threatened due to political parties situation now. what happened with reformist judges is enough proof, the system threated to fire 2 of them and did the same with all reformist. The real crisis is the seige around the political movements. this is the real source of threat not terrorism.

















 
Name
Mouneer    – United States
Profession
Question
How do you see the US interest in Sinai blasts and how can Americans gain benifets from these acts?


Answer
I do not think the USA is involved in these acts, I do not see any benifits. But may be the USA is trying to establish some kind of security cooperation between Egypt and Israel and Egypt still refuses this because it means admitting and approving of the Israeli definition of terorrism.

















 
Name
Bakeer    – 
Profession
Question
Do you think that the Islamist are involved in this act? and why ?

Answer
Terrorism cells, especially new ones differ from the radical islamic organizations that Egypt had witnessed during the 70s and 80s, like al Jihad, This group had an integral islamic ideology and had islamic literature which they relied on and introduced their own religious philosophy and tried to change the system by force through many terrorist acts like assasinating Anwar AL Sadat, they clashed with the system and regime and their oponents. Security system succeeded in fighthing and breaking theses cells in the mid 90s, we can say they now vanished and their remnants are now out of Egypt and cooperated with al Qa’da and gave up terrorism.
With the new millenium, the new terrorists’ generation appeared. This one was charecterized by practicing some revenge operations as what happened in Cairo a while ago and attacked some tourists. As for Sinai, these are also cells characterized by 1- expressing political, social and cultural refusal that might be against foreign (as what happened in Taba 2004) or the latest attack due to the bad treatment they received from the regime after taba blast 2004 when the arrested people reached 4000 2- these cells move and act like the bedoiun situation in Sinai, they are not stable.

so terrorism reasons and motives differ, they ,might be a result of external factor (2004) or internal (2006)
These socially and politically frustrated cells and groups in a region neglected by the Egyptian authority as Sinai certainly have a radical ideological cover that is affected by AL Qa’aeda model through the net without necessarily meaning the presence of an organizational engagement with them.

















 
Name
noni    – Indonesia
Profession
Question
Salam alaikum, what do you think the bombers were trying to achieve by this heinous act. and do you think they achieved their aim?
Answer
I think that the point behind terrorism is always revenge. We should learn the lessons though and face any weakness in our security system.
















 
Name
Sahar    – Egypt
Profession Assistant Professor
Question
How do you interpret the fact that the targeted areas both in Sahrm blasts and Dahab were mainly destinations of Egyptians and most of casualities were among Egyptians with very few foreigner casualities? What message does that signal?

Answer
I believe that when feelings of hatred are deeper then revenge from the regime might take place in any way and many innocent people can pay the price. the way of these groups and their acts is not mainly to kill Egyptians but to destabilize the system in Egypt and frighten foreingers and ruin tourism. There are economic and political motives behind killing these innocent poeple and they are not justified of course.

















 
Name
Said Mostafa    – United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Will changing the Egyptian regime or the process which lead to choose the political elite be the right way to handle the tones of problems Egypt faces currently ?


Answer
Changing the elite will not change terrorism, yes we need a new elite and need the pressure of all the reformist parties in Egpt but this will never take place with terrorism.

















 
Name
Ahmed    – Egypt
Profession
Question
Could you mention the implications of this terror act on the Egyptian regime amid tense relations between this regime and most of the society powers ?





Answer
I think that, as mentioned before, the basic problem is the relation between the regime and the powers because terorism will never end a regime or get rid of it. Egypt’s real problem is the absence of democracy and the bad relation you mentioned. If Egypt is really enjoying a democratic regime and system the armed forces would have been busy chasing the terrorists not the judges and reformists and activists of civil society. The real future is in building real democracy.

















 
Name
Kamal    – Belgium
Profession
Question What’s your prediction about what could occure in the wake of Sinai blasts, especially on the political level internally and externally ?


Answer I believe that there is danger and risk of having such blasts again unless we fix our security pitfalls in Sinai and allow the presence of more armed forces there to have more control. As for the internal effect, I fear that this will continue as a reason for the Egyptian government to keep the current status, emergency law, and decrease freedoms. In all cases terrorism will not be able to remove this regime and will never be the reason for democracy and political reform. Peaceful opposing powers and reformists will do and can do.
Externally , I think terrorsim is an international problem, this is present in Lonodn, Madrid… and many other places. I do not see this as crucial as 11th of September, this is only refused terrorism that we have seen in many other countries.

















 
Name
Nazirah    – 
Profession student
Question Salaam~~

What is Egypt’s reaction due to this in long term since this will affect the whole muslims’ conutries?

Thanks
Answer
I think that the blasts will not affect all the muslim countries as this problem is currently massively present in the Islamic world, but we should not forget that Europe witnessed terrosim organizations in the 60s and until mid 70s that practiced violence and assasinated men, raped women and killed children to get money without meaning of course that European societies are only these groups. I believe this problem will remain as long as we have undemocratic systems. The presence of this phenomena in democratic systems means it will not be worrying and this is what happened in Europe when they were able to absorb the leftist terrorism and make political and economic reform that helped get rid of it.
















 
Name
Imad    – Denmark
Profession Engineer
Question Who gains out of these terrorist acts? What should we do as a young Muslim engineer to counter-act these kind of terrorists? At times I feel frustrated and angry at those criminals in the name of Islamic outfit who are giving all the waepons to people who wants to destroy Islam.
Answer
It is very difficult to say that someone benefits from a terrorist action. These are false and wrong beliefs with political and social frustration behind them which deepens wrong understanding of religion. During the 19th century and until mid 20th century, all the Islamic thinkers were voting for a dialogue with the West among them were Rifaa’ Al Tahtawi and Muhammad Abdu and these (Takfir) thoughts never prevailed although we were occupied countries. The problem was never religious text, Islam is the same but the context differed. The social, cultural context now prevailing in the Arab world drove these young people to take these thoughts. what I say to all the youth in all the countries that they should concentrate on fighting social, and cultural reasons that created terrorism, they should also defend justice as a value to all people regardless of religion and culture and color.