"Egypt Is Facing A Growing Islamic Insurgency" Topic

"Egypt's military said it was firmly in control of the Sinai peninsula after beating back the fiercest assault yet by Islamist militants behind a week of violence that has laid bare the growing threat facing the nation.

The day-long battle between Egypt's security forces and militants linked to the Islamic State on Wednesday left 17 soldiers and more than 100 jihadists dead, the military said in a televised statement. As fighting had unfolded, officials in Sinai said as many as 64 security personnel were killed. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the figures.

"No one, whoever he is, will be able to control even one millimeter of Sinai or any part of Egypt while the Egyptian army and Egyptian police exist," military spokesman Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said, suggesting media were to blame for the widely varying casualty tolls…"
Full article here
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YouTube link

What struck me about the Sinai attack yesterday was not only the coordination, but that these ISIS fighters had heavy weapons and even uniforms … see here…

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Amicalement
Armand

From that casualty ratio it would seem Egypt can handle it.

Seems like they've been doing a really good job of things overall, since getting rid of Morsi.

Agree!

Amicalement
Armand

All Jazeera presented the 'rebels' more as Sinai 'nationalists' rather than full on jihad is………..convenient label for the removal of opposition to Cairo's plans……

Mako 11 and perhaps Tango01(I'm not sure who you're agreeing with.):
Are you aware of what is going on in Egypt since the military ousted the Muslim Brotherhood and the legally elected President Morsi? Mass arrests, suppression of media and dissent, slaughter of protestors by the hundred and now thousands, extrajudicial killings not only of MB members but of community leaders, lawyers and even charity workers associated with the MB, torture and torturing people to death, disappearing people in the thousands, open revolt in Sinai and southern Egypt and the imposition of fear on everyone. How is that doing a really good job? The Sisi government is setting the stage for a full blown Islamic Fudamentalist revolution in Egypt which will plunge 80+ million people into a vortex of chaos and ultra-violent upheaval which will plague the Middle East and North Africa for a generation or two. With allies like President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the West will surely lose its struggle with ISIS and just about assure the establishment of a nightmare-caliphate in the Middle East and North Africa. This is stupid policy leading to a tragic future. The Nile will run red.
Rod Robertson.

I doubt the Sisi government is setting the foudnations for an Islamic revolution because:

a) The counter-revolution was popular because Morsi was an incompetent, nepotistic, corrupt idiot.

b) Egypt has a Western leaning, competent military.

c) Th economy of Egypt rather depends on Western largesse and tourism, and the people of Egypt know this.

The Islamists in Egypt are a minority. After the last major massacre of tourists at Karnak apparently the tourist sites were flooded with Egyptians, which is unusual.

They were defending the ew remaining visitors with their bodies – something you dob't often hear about I'm guessing on US media.

@Stu: The Egyptian military also swore an oath to protect their country against terrorists and Islamists, long before Morsi took power. Oaths are taken deadly serious in that part of the world.

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Agre with both comments my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

Regardless … I too think the 'Gypos can handle it. I laud any one in the region who takes the fight to Daesh and it's affiliates …

Th economy of Egypt rather depends on Western largesse and tourism, and the people of Egypt know this.

As does many other states in the region and Daesh, AQ, etc., knows it.

I guess that is one way to look at it, Rod.

This has been festering since the assassination of Sadat.

I see it as putting down the Islamist terrorists and radicals, in order to create a more civilized society, and apparently most of the Egyptians seem to approve of Sisi's policies as well.

Clearly, Sisi's call for Muslim's to look inwards, and to renounce jihadi tenets is a good thing for their society.

Therefore, I think it's making an Islamic revolution in Egypt far less likely.

Mako 11:
That's what the secular generals in Algeria thought when they thwarted the democratic process and prevented Islamists from taking power after winning an electoral mandate to do so. The next twenty years of Algerian history was very grim indeed and troubles continue today. No army can suppress 80+ million people if they decide to rise up and given the draconian oppression of the El-Sisi government and the moribund prospects for the Egyptian economy, I am inclined to believe that Egypt has a real possibility of becoming a revolutionary blood bath. I earnestly hope not, but I think it will happen and sooner than we all might expect.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

Although note the Islamic rebellion in Algeria failed, much to the betterment of Algeria.

Rod, you seem to be under the impression the Egyptian government is unpopular….why?

Bangorstu:
The Algerian Civil War was a brutal, decade-long event which killed between 50,000 – 200'000 people. The army didn't prevent a rebellion, they led one when Islamist parties won more than half the seats and two-thirds of the popular vote in the first round of elections in late 1991. Both the Army and the ousted Islamists brutalized the population and ruined its economy. There never was an Islamic rebellion, only a military putsch and Algeria was worse off not better off for the "Dirty War".
As to Egypt:
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Rod Robertson.

No Islamic rebellion in Algeria?

I do wonder who killed all of those people then…

you think the Isalmic Armed Movement weren't jihaddis?

And they weren't as bad as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA)…

Oh and the GSPC which is AQ affiliated…

Nope. No Islamists there at all.

Bangorstu:
The Islamists had an electoral mandate to form a government. The army overthrew the Islamists before the election process was complete but even after the first round the Islamists had won a majority. As the army Junta overthrew the legally elected civilian authority it was the army which rebelled, not the Islamists.
As to who killed whom, the death toll is a function of massacres and killings carried out by both sides in the civil war and the army was not above staging massacres and blaming them on the Islamists. Say what you will about the violence and intolerance of Islamist groups like the GIA, at least they were honest enough to admit when they had committed atrocities. The Junta was not honest in this regard.
In 1991 and early 1992 the Islamists were far less inclined to using wanton violence. The Islamist movement in Algeria became far more militant and violent during the civil war as a reaction to the usurpation and violence of the Junta. When ( in 1992) thousands of FIS politicians and party members were arrested and hundreds of them were killed without any legal process the Islamist movement went underground and radicalized. It was then that the majority of the Islamist movement became increasingly violent and extremist. It was a reaction to violent secular extremism aimed at the Islamist movement. There were violent groups like the MIA before the coup d'état but they were far more marginal and peripheral before the Junta's putsch and campaign of political oppression.
How you construe that I somehow said there were no Islamists there at all is beyond my ken. The Islamic parties most certainly were Jihadist organizations with an Islamic and theocratic agenda but the majority were not using widespread violence to promote their agenda until the Algerian Military overthrew them from exercising legitimate democratic power. The word Jihad has a connotation in the West as being only violent. But in the context of Islam it can also be peaceful. Jihad can be an internal and personal struggle within oneself or a social campaign designed to protect and/or promote Islam. It does not have to involve violence, although it often does.
The GSPC were not founded until after the civil war as a splinter group from a moribund GIA. They did affiliate with Al-Qaeda.
Rod Robertson

@Rod I Robertson,

The word Jihad has a connotation in the West as being only violent. But in the context of Islam it can also be peaceful.

Yes, the difference between Jihad and jihad. Unfortunately, it's sometimes difficult to know which one a speaker is expounding.

Rod – the village massacres and various atrocities were overwhelming committed by the Islamists….

That the Algerian Army destroyed the insurgency rather proves they had popular support.

Given there has never been an 'Islamic' government which has ever recognised democratic norms, I've a lot of sympathy for the Algerian Army intervening.

Because, given every single example we have, it was the correct thing to do.

Cyrus the Great:
Very true, unfortunately.

Bangorstu:
In the first round of elections the Islamists won over 60% of the popuLar vote. The Algerian Army had foreign and financial support but not popular sport.
Democracy is a Western ideology. We like it but it is as foreign to much of the world as Oriental Absolutism is to us. And it is quite hard for Islamic governments to develop a track record on democracy w
The Algerian Army killed tens of thousands and Egypt looks to be heading in the same direction.

The one positive development from Morsi's farce of a regime was that it exposed the lie that the Islamic extremists want any kind of democracy or pluralistic society.

Morse immediately defied the Constitution that provided the framework for elections that brought him into power, and seized power that wasn't his.

So all of the "progressive, modern, liberal with a small "l" intellectuals" who were against a military dictatorship with a hereditary ruler for life at least learned that the Islamic fundamentalists were not the answer.

Egypt's fundamentalists lost a lot of influence and support, but turned more to extremism and violence. They have to – they've lost the support of most of the average people.

Cyrus the Great:
Very true, unfortunately.

Bangorstu:
In the first round of elections the Islamists won over 60% of the popuLar vote. The Algerian Army had foreign and financial support but not popular support.
Democracy is a Western ideology. We like it but it is as foreign to much of the world as Oriental Absolutism is to us. And it is quite hard for Islamic governments to develop a track-record on democracy when the militaries keep ousting them from power in very undemocratic ways. Toppling Islamic governments may seem to be the right thing to do for the West but I'm not so sure that the majority of citizens of the Middle Eastern states would agree with the wisdom of the West; but I suppose that's just the White Man's Burden and we shall just have to endure telling other peoples how to organize their civilizations and live their (all too often brief) lives.
The Algerian Army killed tens of thousands and Egypt looks to be heading in the same direction. This is not a wise course to my mind.
Rod Robertson

Tuscaloosa:
So, in defense of democracy, we promote the imposition of secular, military dictatorships? Is that logical? Or is it expedient and useful to non-democratic interests which have other priorities?
Rod Robertson.