For Egypt, its the same old story


	October 31, 2001	atimes.com

Front

For Egypt, its the same old story
By Kim Ghattas

CAIRO - It does not matter where they are, Egypt can't seem to get away from them. Islamist attacks, whether against tourists in Luxor or against the United States, have unwelcome repercussions for Egypt, specifically on its ailing economy.

Tourism is the biggest employer and earner of foreign currency here, bringing in US$4.5 billion last year. Even after the start of the Palestinian intifada last year in September, tourism kept going strong. After the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, however, tourism dropped by 18 percent, compared with last year's figures. Security at major hotels has been increased for the sake of the few who are still coming. For Egyptians, in hotels, taxis and shops, there is no one else to blame but the Islamists.

"We have suffered for years from terrorist attacks like no other country in the Middle East," says Abdel Menem Said, director of the Al Ahram center for strategic studies. "We saw the rise of militant Islam that used violence to achieve its goals and we crushed it."

The "war against terror" started decades ago in Egypt. Egypt has repeatedly asked Britain to hand over Islamic extremists wanted for crimes in Egypt and who had sought refuge in London. The request was always denied because British law forbids extradition to countries which have the death penalty. Today, there is a nagging desire in Egypt to tell the West: "We told you so."

Indeed, nowhere have Islamists been repressed so violently and relentlessly, to the exception perhaps of Syria. The Egyptian government has been imprisoning, executing and torturing Islamists for years.

Former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser even outlawed the non-violent Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in 1954. At the time, it was not even about the fear of militant Islam but a struggle of power for more ministerial posts, which the MB eventually lost.

The more radical Gamaa Islamiyya and Islamic Jihad, created around the 1970s and outlawed almost immediately after, sought to establish an Islamic republic in Egypt, through violent attacks. Gamaa focused on quantity while Islamic Jihad opted for qualitative attacks with far-reaching political consequences, such as the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar el Sadat in 1981. Emergency law has been in force since then.

After the devastating earthquake that hit Cairo in 1992, the MB and other Islamic groups were the first on the streets, clearing the rubble and helping the victims, while the government was nowhere to be seen. Threatened by a potential rise in popularity of the Islamists as they attempted to broaden their popular base through social services, the Egyptian government introduced a law that banned foreign money donations. Islamic charities fall under the direct control of the ministry of social affairs, allowing no dark holes in their finances.

But in 1997, Gamaa Islamiyya committed the ultimate political mistake in Luxor, when it killed 60 tourists. "The Luxor attack stripped the radicals groups from whatever last bit of popularity they had," says Diaa Rashwan, an Islamic expert from the Al Ahram center. "The Egyptian economy suffered too much and there was no political justification whatsoever for the attack."

In a downtown Cairo office, women are veiled in the strictest Sunni manner, gloves on their hands, their eyes hidden behind heavy black lace cloth. The man they are coming to see is defending their husbands and brothers, in jail for belonging to the outlawed Jihad or Gamaa.

Muntasser Zayyat, himself an Islamist, was a member of the Islamic Jihad that killed Sadat in 1981. He shared a cell for three years with Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top aide. After they both came out of jail, Zawahiri headed to Afghanistan, but Zayyat decided to renounce violence and explains the change in strategy of the Islamists. "The Islamic Jihad and Gamaa Islamiyya believed that the liberation of Jerusalem starts in Cairo - in other words, before hitting the farthest enemy, you need to attack the enemy at home, to topple corrupt Arab regimes with violence," he says. "Now, the Gamaa Islamiyya has opted to fight the enemy at home by peaceful means and the Islamic Jihad is now using violence against the farthest enemy."

Egypt has been terrorism-free for four years, leading one to think that the government's violent policies were successful. Experts on the issue such as Rashwan believe future violence in Egypt is unlikely and say that today the threat of Islamists cited by the government is more that of a paper tiger. "We are hostage to [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak," says another analyst very explicitly, refusing to be named. "He is not going to let go until he dies. In the meantime, he will brandish the Islamist threat to maintain the emergency law and make sure no one gets close to power, Islamist or secular."

Even if criticism about such policies is starting to come out of Washington, Egypt remains a major US ally in the region, receiving $1.3 billion in US military aid anually since the 1979 Camp David agreement. It has now given full support to the US-led campaign against terror. Publications also have been asked to water down criticism of the United States and no major demonstrations have taken place yet outside universities.

"Egypt has dealt with the situation very well by pleasing all sides," argues Said from the Al Ahram center, pointing out that Egypt cooperated with the United States in investigations and other requests but did not offer troops, unacceptable in the eyes of other Arab countries.

(Inter Press Service)