Islamist jihadis infiltrate Sinai
The recent terrorist attack which was launched against the Egyptian border guards in Rafah in North Sinai, and which left some 16 dead and seven injured indicates, if anything, just how much Islamist jihadi militants have infiltrated the Peninsula. Anyone who knows anything about Sinai and its mountainous terrain realises that it is a virtual impossibility to wage an attack from Sinai without the active or tacit support of the Bedouin who know the place and all its intricacies like the palm of their hand. It is their homeland; they patrol it and control it, defying any attempt to break their tight, natural grip on it.
Since the 25 January 2011 Revolution, Salafi Jihadist groups have taken advantage of the State’s bewilderment and carried out 64 attacks against military and security sites in Sinai, during which some 181 lost their lives. They also conducted some 254 armed highway robberies, and 24 abductions of military personnel (12), civilians (4), and tourists (8).
The obvious alliance between the Salafi Jihadist and the Bedouin drug/weapons dealers in Sinai works to fund the crimes executed by the extremist groups.
It does not help that there have been no courts of law in Sinai since May 2011, and that, according to the peace agreement with Israel, there are no more than 2000 Egyptian soldiers—military and police—in the Peninsula.
Close to al-Qaeda
To grasp what is happening in Sinai, one must understand how the several fundamentalist Islamist organisations generally known as al-tanzeemat al-takfiriya emerged, and how closely linked the Salafi Jihadists are to the ideology of al-Qaeda. Al-tanzeemat al-takfiriya are Islamist organisations that declare anyone who differs with their ultra-extremist notions of Islam as kafir (infidel).
As far back as 2004, Egypt has been the scene of several terrorist operations, each followed with firm security action and the blame placed squarely to the account of foreign jihadi organisations. The bomb explosions in Taba, Sharm al-Sheikh and Dahab in 2004, 2005 and 2006 were major among these incidents.
In 2007, Mohamed Khalil al-Hakayma issued a declaration from Iran in which he called on all Muslims to battle foreign agents, followed by another declaration, also in 2007, in which he presented himself as al-Qaeda’s chief in Egypt.
According to a study issued by the Arab Centre for Research on the organisational structure of the outlawed group, al-Qaeda cited an Egyptian arm among its branches. The study said that al-Qaeda’s Egypt branch was established on 12 May 2006 and included 250 members. It mentioned the magnitude of its military stockpile of arms, ammunition, and explosives; and listed the names of its leaders and members, and their tasks. It also explained the methods of recruitment of members for the Egyptian branch. These included, besides the obvious advantage of jihadi websites and Islamic satellite channels, the exploitation of thorny issues in Egypt such as Bedouin problems. Al-Qaeda agents worked to stir up sentiments against the State and persuade the Bedouin that their demands would best be fulfilled through an Islamic emirate.
An Islamic emirate
The 2006 study also warned that the Sinai Peninsula was the perfect place for al-Qaeda to launch military operations to strike key State institutions and work to stir unrest prior to declaring an Islamic emirate in Sinai.
The extremist al-Takfir wal-Higra group was for decades operating in Egypt under cover before former President Mubarak stepped down and the Minister of Interior Habib al-Adli fell. Mr Adli kept tabs on all the Salafi streams, especially after he held them responsible for all the terrorist attacks against civilians in Egypt since 2004.
It is impossible to overlook the parallels between the content of the 2006 study and the series of attacks against police stations and State institutions and facilities in Sinai. It is no coincidence that all the attacks were waged to the backdrop of the vociferous chants of: “Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest); Islamic, Islamic, we want it Islamic [State].”
It is expected for al-Qaeda Egypt, whose members, according to a declaration by one of its leaders to the Cairo independent daily Al-Masri al-Youm, have now swelled to some 10,000, to merge with Gaza’s Geish al-Islam, literally Islam’s Army. Al-Qaeda Egypt is also coordinating on the military level with other smaller fundamentalist organisations, such as al-Tawheed wal-Jihad and al-Gabha al-Islamiya.
Fundamentalist military parades
A reconciliation initiative between the Egyptian security forces and the Sinai Bedouin was put into action near the end of the Mubarak regime. This resulted in the release of several members of Salafi and jihadi groups who had been detained. Later, following the 25 January Revolution and the subsequent security collapse, the Military Council ordered the release of those Salafi Bedouin who were still in detention in an attempt to allay the rising tensions in Sinai.
Under the chaos that reigned following the revolution, the fundamentalists announced a regime of their own and the placement of the Sinai Peninsula under their rule by force of arms in order to create an Islamic entity based on their own vision. In a show of force, Sinai fundamentalists organised military parades that roamed the streets of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, carrying black flags and holding modern weapons high, while they chanted jihadi, Qaeda-like slogans. They tried more than once to destroy the Sheikh Zuweid shrine—fundamentalists do not approve of shrines and consider them a form of idolatry.
According to local residents, the groups conduct training on the use of modern weapons in remote places to the east of al-Arish and south of al-Gora, some 25 kms away from the border with Palestine. Local residents say that arms trafficking was extensively on the rise in the region, and all under the eyes of the authorities who appeared unable to confront the situation.
Illicit trade
In the five years since al-Qaeda first announced its activities in Egypt, the presence of armed Salafis have mushroomed in Sinai. Their ideology is allied with that of the Gaza Jihadi Salafi stream that is also Hamas’s ally, the Geish al-Islam organisation, which desires to take over the Gaza strip and expand into Sinai. In fact, Hamas is allowing Geish al-Islam to operate near Sinai in order to avoid any clashes over power in Gaza. All this coincides with the remarkable and well-published growth in international human trafficking, where Sinai is considered a safe passage for the trade, not to mention the prospering drug and arms trades. Over the last five years the Sinai peninsula has become a new Afghanistan, home to the triangle of evil: drugs, weapons and human dealers who exchange interests with Salafi-armed organisations.
Of course Iran, which is home to 83 of the most wicked Egyptian extremists, is supporting some of the Sinai activities. According to Abdel-Rehim Ali, head of the Arab Research Centre, of the 83 Egyptian criminals who live in Iran, only one, Mohamed al-Islamboli, was handed over to Egyptian authorities.
Army of vigilantes
On 6 August 2011, the non-jihadi Salafi movement announced the formation of fatwa and legislation committees, as well as the expansion of its rule on to Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah. This was made possible—until the police returned—by the help of 6,000 vigilantes; the movement considered that supporting Hamas—the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood—was a religious duty. The North Sinai governor later gave them credence when he said: “As an administrative authority that works within the precincts of the law, we cannot reach Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, so we are leaving it to the volunteers to protect and defend] the area.”
Last year, during the meeting between the then Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and Sinai tribal sheikhs in Ras Sudr, Sheikh Abdallah Gahama, the sheikhs’ chief spokesman, asked Dr Sharaf to form a third governorate in the heart of Sinai. There are currently two governorates in Sinai: South Sinai, the older of the two, and North Sinai, which was established in 1974. The strategic depth of Sinai actually lies in the middle area, which houses the passages of Mitla and Gadya, both known for their strategic value for military and traditional security. Even though Sheikh Gahama’s demand was not realised, it reflects the magnitude of the Bedouin demands in the Peninsula.
We are now seeing the military operations in Sinai, which the army insists are being waged not to fight its people, but to deter law breakers and purge the territory. So let us pray that there is still hope for a more secure Sinai. This is not an issue that can tolerate any partisan loyalties; it is a national cause which requires efforts that carry at heart the interest of Egypt.
WATANI International
19 August 2012