Egyptian Islamic Group Denies Joining Al Qaeda

AP ^ | August 6 2006

[jmc1969]

A leader of an Egyptian militant group denied Sunday that it had joined Al Qaeda saying the majority of its members are sticking by a truce they declared almost a decade ago.

"Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya is strong and solid and not affected at all by nonsense here or there," Karam Zohdy, one of the group's most senior leaders, said on Al Jazeera news network. "What Ayman al-Zawahri has said is sheer fabrication and lying."

In a statement posted on al-Gamaa al-Islamiya's Web Site on Sunday, the group said it "flatly denies what Ayman al-Zawahri had said about it joining Al Qaeda." The statement was signed by the group's leaders who spent more than 20 years behind bars for their roles in assassinating President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

The group's statement said the dispute between al-Gamma and Al Qaeda is "deep," and it appealed to the terror network to review its vision. The group also declared its opposition to killing women and children and attacking Shiite mosques in Iraq, according to the statement.