Posted on 07/17/2002 3:01:59 PM PDT by knighthawk
While the United States keeps up the fight against terrorism--a military operation to contain Islamic terrorism it has undertaken since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil--the Islamic Group, a major Egypt-based group founded on extremist Islamic fundamentalism, recently has made open self-criticisms and apologized to the Egyptian public for its past deeds.
The extremist group led an aggressive antigovernment terrorism campaign in the 1990s, culminating in a November 1997 attack in Luxor, southern Egypt, in which group members shot or hacked to death 58 foreign tourists, including 10 Japanese.
Owing to its fanatical views, the group had long been considered completely unwilling to reflect on its terrorist acts. Therefore, the about-face of the extremist Islamic fundamentalists in the form of self-criticisms and apologies apparently has prompted many in the Middle East and the Islamic world to propose, as an alternative to the use of force, that religious enlightenment campaigns be attempted on Islamic terrorists to contain their acts of terrorism.
The self-criticisms and apologies were openly made by the 12-member jailed leadership, including four on death row, all serving time at a prison in a south Cairo suburb.
The top of the leadership in question is Karam Zohdy, 49, a founding member of the group. He was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the assassination of then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on Oct. 6, 1981, and for an armed revolt against the government two days later in a city in the south in which about 100 armed militants attacked and captured a municipal police headquarters, killing 20 police officers in the process.
In mid-June, the group leaders accepted an interview with the pro-government Egyptian weekly Al-Mussawar in the prison. They became the first extremist Islamic fundamentalist forces in the Middle East to collectively make self-criticisms and apologies over their antigovernment terrorism campaign. The interview was carried in the June 19 issue of the magazine.
In the interview, Zohdy criticized the group by touching on its antigovernment terrorism campaign in the 1990s and its tactics.
"Inside Islamic Group and other (Islamist) groups some people know that we have revised our positions in accordance with Islamic Sharia (law) and found that killing civilians is prohibited. It is not right to rebel against the state at all. We, for example, have revised the issue of rebellion against the state with weapons, and we found that there are many points barring and prohibiting such rebellion," he was quoted as saying.
He then expressed apologies to the Egyptian public, and was quoted as saying, "(The Islamic Group owes the Egyptian people) an apology for the crimes which (the group) has committed against Egypt. We are even thinking of paying blood money to the victims."
He also condemned the Sept. 11 attacks, for which the United States held the Al-Qaida network of international extremist Islamic fundamentalist responsible.
"This event has badly damaged Islam and Muslims. Killing of innocent people is forbidden and God will bring bin Laden to account for that," he was quoted as saying.
The group is one of Egypt's two major extremist Islamic fundamentalist organizations. It was founded mainly by university students in the central and southern parts of the country sometime in the 1970s.
In October 1981, it revolted against the Egyptian government in concert with the other Egyptian extremist fundamentalist organization, the Jihad Group, by calling for toppling the secular government.
Although the joint rebellion succeeded in the assassination of Sadat, it was suppressed in the end, and a majority of the groups leaders, including Zohdy, were arrested and imprisoned.
Despite strict control by the country's law-enforcement authorities, however, the two groups managed to survive. In 1992, both groups resumed their antigovernment terrorism campaigns.
In particular, the Islamic Group adopted unprecedented tactics to target foreign tourists visiting the country in an attempt to make a negative impact on the government's finances by affecting the tourist revenue. The group's tactics eventually led to the 1997 attack in Luxor.
As the group's antigovernment terrorism campaign started to appear protracted without attaining the goal of overthrowing the government, Zohdy and other imprisoned leaders in July 1997 called out to group members at large to terminate the armed campaign.
This particular act on the part of the leadership in prison was a de facto declaration of defeat, but it did not include any words of self-criticism or apology to the public over its armed campaign.
After some turns and twists, the group's outside leaders accepted the call for ending the campaign made by the imprisoned leaders in the end--leading to the all-out termination of the group's seven-year antigovernment campaign, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
Since the beginning of this year, Zohdy and other group leaders have published four books criticizing the group and its acts.
This time, they openly apologized to the Egyptian public through the pro-government weekly's interview.
The group's self-criticisms and apologies apparently have been received with some shock in the Middle East and the Islamic world because none of the extremist Islamic fundamentalist forces had been expected to make any self-criticism or apology considering their fanatical views.
In its July 2 issue, the Lebanese daily As-Safir favorably evaluated the group's self-criticism.
"As far as is known, no Arab political party or group has taken this path before, and the political leaders who have offered apologies of this sort can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Moreover, such apologies have been mostly of a personal nature. The Egyptian Islamic Group's move points to the need for other Arab political parties and groups to revise and critique their experiences," it said in its editorial.
Furthermore, some media in the Middle East and the Islamic world have editorialized that it might be effective to provide religious enlightenment to members of Al-Qaida--especially young ones, who commonly lack judgment.
Saudi Arabia's pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat urged the Saudi Arabian government to conduct a religious enlightenment campaign for Al-Qaida's young members, whom it described as "misguided."
"If we contemplate changes such as those in the Islamic Group in Egypt, we can see that extremist Islamic movements can abandon their extremism and return to the right path. We may come to realize that process of religious reform that is affecting Islamic Group members in Egypt today may have the same effect on Al-Qaida's eager youth. This can be achieved by addressing these elements with wisdom and good advice," Asharq al-Awsat said in an editorial on July 2.
Fujiwawara is a freelance journalist.
Islam list
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
The Moslem Conquests; A Short History of the Beginning of Islam
He also condemned the Sept. 11 attacks ... "This event has badly damaged Islam and Muslims ..."Predictable jihadist reasoning. Off with their heads.
ML/NJ
http://www.chick.com/information/religions/islam/
For obvious reasons I prefer this one!
ML/NJ
I believe this is good news and we shouldn't ignore that. Here's the story of an American, who converted to Islam, hooked up with the extremists, went to Chechnya, fought and lost a leg fighting. This attack on the tourists turned him against the Jihadis and he went to the FBI and offered his services. We need and a solid Free Islam Radio/tv service to hit points like this and attack the religious basis. It can prevent some terror, but also help us get allies in the area.
Sorta. The mo-slimes need to be divided. Caused to fight each other.
Within Christianity, a variety of beliefs exist. The Catholics, the Orthodox, the Protestants...and scores of subgroups of Protestants...have fought and continue to fight. So, the mo-slimes need the same state of affairs. Dissension (to the point of actual combat) needs to be sewn between sects, and between national groups. And when they've weakened themselves, they'll be ripe for further action.
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