Egyptian bombs
shake Muslim world By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Bomb explosions on Monday in the
Sinai seaside town of Dahab in Egypt in which 23
people died are yet another warning for pro-US
Muslim countries of the price they have to pay for
being allies of the United States.
And
security experts tell Asia Times Online that "war
on terror" outpost Pakistan and the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia are prime targets.
Within 24
hours of a message carried by al-Qaeda head Osama
bin Laden on Al-Jazeera television in which he
warned of a divide between the West and Islam,
Egypt was rocked by the triple
blasts, in which a number of
the victims were foreign tourists.
However, it is highly unlikely that the
attacks were carried out by mainstream al-Qaeda;
the more likely perpetrators are from a branch
comprising takfiris - those who brand
non-practicing Muslims as infidels.
Bin
Laden is personally opposed to attacks on Muslim
countries that support the US, but al-Qaeda
leaders such as Egyptian Abu Amro Abdul Hakeem,
also known as Sheikh Essa, and Mustafa Seerat
al-Suri (now arrested) believe otherwise.
Most takfiris come from families
who were badly oppressed by various Egyptian
regimes, ranging from those of Gamal Abdul Nasser
and Anwar Sadat to Hosni Mubarak's.
They
were initially associated with the Muslim
Brotherhood and because of that they were
victimized. As a result, a group of dissidents
emerged from the Brotherhood, rejecting its
practice of politicking. They branded Egypt an
infidel society and migrated to the Sinai Desert.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan
in 1979, this group went to Afghanistan to fight
alongside the mujahideen. Now they have small
pockets in Egypt, Syria and Afghanistan and in
Pakistan's tribal agency of Bajaur.
After
many arrests in Pakistan and Afghanistan, their
numbers are now small, and al-Qaeda has engaged
them in its offensive in Afghanistan, so their
activities have been significantly reduced.
However, Pakistan's security circles
remain on high alert over possible attacks in the
country, with top decision-makers, both civilian
and military, believed to be in the firing line.
There have been similar attacks, including
several on President General Pervez Musharraf,
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and two corps
commanders. Plots to blow up the offices of the
Inter-Services Intelligence and the general
headquarters in Rawalpindi were also foiled after
the arrest of a number of jihadis associated with
the Jundullah group.
However, the
situation has changed. According to a top
Pakistani security official, in the past the
government could contain the jihadis. This was
because most of them had been under the control of
the establishment, so tracking them was easy and
their leaders were caught or went into hiding.
At the same time, the high number of
arrests made the jihadi groups skeptical as they
suspected each other of being proxies for the
intelligence agencies.
Now, though,
irrespective of their organizational boundaries,
the jihadis have regrouped in the North and South
Waziristan tribal agencies on the border with
Afghanistan under the spiritual command of Taliban
leader Mullah Omar, just waiting for orders to
strike.
A similar situation exists in the
Middle East, where al-Qaeda now has a base in Iraq
and can conveniently shuttle between Iraq and
Saudi Arabia. Unlike in the past when some
al-Qaeda-linked groups carried out random attacks,
al-Qaeda now has ample time and space to draw up
concerted plans to infiltrate Saudi Arabia in its
struggle against the Saudi monarchy.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau
Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Online. He can be
reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
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