Washington removed it from the lists of terrorism.. Get to know the "Islamic Group" in Egypt

The US State Department announced the removal of 5 organizations operating in different regions around the world from the list of foreign terrorist organizations, under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

According to a statement published by the ministry, on Friday, May 20, 2022, the classification of 5 organizations has been canceled: the Basque separatist organization ETA (armed Spanish), the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo sect, the extremist Jewish Kach movement, the Mujahideen Shura Council in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and the Islamic Group in Egypt.

The Islamic Group was founded in the early seventies of the last century, as it saw change by force, then revised its approach and abandoned violence, and after the fall of the Mubarak regime, it established the "Construction and Development" party.

Birth and founding

Early 1970s: The Islamic Group was founded in Egypt by Salah Hashem at Assiut University in the Upper Egypt region.

It had members in most Egyptian universities, which initially carried the name of the religious group, and included among its founders names that emerged in the scene of the Islamic movement and the political arena in Egypt, such as Abu Al-Ela Madi, Karam Zuhdi, Abdel Moneim Abu Al Fotouh, Asim Abdel Majid, Osama Hafez and others.

- She saw change by force, similar to jihadist groups, then she undertook ideological revisions and changed her approach in the summer of 1997.

In its early years, the group was limited to cultural, social and service activities directed mostly to students.

1977: A number of its leaders, such as Issam Al-Arian, Abdel Moneim Abu Al-Fotouh, Helmy Al-Jazzar, Ibrahim Al-Zafarani, Abu Al-Ela Madi and Mohi Al-Din Ahmed Issa, left the group, and all joined the Muslim Brotherhood.

political positions

- On the political level, the group opposed the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's hosting of the Shah of Iran, and rejected Sadat's famous visit to occupied Jerusalem and his signing of the Camp David Accord with Israel, and in this position it agreed with the Muslim Brotherhood and the leftist forces.

By the early years of the eighties, the group had developed its opposition to the Sadat regime, and allied itself with the Jihad Organization to overthrow the regime, at a period in which the political tension in Egypt reached its climax when Sadat issued on the fifth of September 1981 orders to arrest 1,536 figures from all colors of the opposition political spectrum, including Hundreds of Islamists.

October 6, 1981: A group of the group and the Jihad Organization, led by First Lieutenant Khaled al-Islambouli, assassinated President Anwar al-Sadat while attending the annual military parade to commemorate the October 1973 victory.

Two days after that event, members of the group’s military wing attacked the security directorate and police stations in Assiut, and occupied the city in a fierce battle in which a large number of police and special forces were killed, which ended with the arrest of the group’s leaders and bringing them to trial.

1983: Thousands of members of the group were released from the second and third grades, and it resumed its activities without any change in the curriculum, and its membership expanded horizontally, and its activities were transferred to Cairo, Alexandria and some other governorates.

August 1993: The assassination of the group's spokesman, Alaa Mohieldin, in Cairo, sparked bloody and violent confrontations between the group and the Mubarak regime, and the group assassinated the former parliament speaker, Rifaat al-Mahjoub, in retaliation for the assassination of its spokesman.

Stop Violence Initiative

July 1997: The leaders of the Islamic Group announced an initiative to stop violence after it revised its ideology and approach. The initiative was not affected by the group’s cadres abroad, in November of the same year, an attack on the Luxor Temple that killed 58 foreign tourists.

April 11, 2006: The Egyptian authorities released 950 detainees from the group, including the leader, Najeh Ibrahim, in batches over 10 days, the last of which was 300 released on the occasion of the Prophet's birthday.

- Judicial sources said that the release of this group, most of them from the governorates of Minya and Assiut in Upper Egypt, raises the number of those released from the group to about 6 thousand.

August 2006: Al-Qaeda's second-in-command (and later leader) Ayman Al-Zawahiri announced that a number of the group's leaders had decided to join Al-Qaeda.

August 6, 2006: The group denied that it had united with Al-Qaeda after the second man in the organization, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, said in a video recording broadcast by Al-Jazeera that a number of the group's leaders had joined Al-Qaeda.

January 25, 2011: After the fall of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the January revolution, the leaders of the Islamic Group participated for the first time - more than 20 years ago - in a public gathering in Assiut Governorate (their former stronghold in Upper Egypt).

Construction and Development Party

June 20, 2011: The group announced its political wing, the Building and Development Party, and Tariq al-Zumar assumed its presidency.

July 3, 2013: The group announced its rejection of the military coup against the elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

In a statement, the group affirmed its "support for a just political solution to the crisis that restores constitutional legitimacy, fulfills the demands of supporters and opponents, and prevents the army from indulging in political affairs."

- The group affirmed that it “is not in conflict with the army as a national military institution that takes care of the country’s borders, but we are against the coup measures taken by some of the leaders of the armed forces, which changed the correct course of the army in a direction that leads to the collapse of constitutional institutions and in a way that leads to fueling conflicts between the sons of the country and its national army, Which is what drags the country to what no one wants for Egypt.”

October 25, 2013: Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya said that its declared position on the coup was fixed and did not change, denying reports that it had retreated from its position and accepted the roadmap announced by Defense Minister Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, which included suspending the constitution and removing the elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

- February 2015: The group called on all those it described as “lovers of their homeland Egypt, everyone with an opinion and all revolutionary, political and religious trends” to seek a “just and urgent political solution to the current crisis that satisfies all parties, and achieves the goals of the revolution by achieving revolutionary alignment in order to achieve National alignment.

The group said in a statement that "the continuation of the tragic situation heralds an increase in division and the spread of hatred and enmity among the sons of the one nation, and pushes it into the furnace of a bitter conflict that may develop into a devastating civil war for the country and its capabilities, which is what should concerted efforts to prevent its occurrence."

August 9, 2015: Essam Derbala fell into a complete coma, which led to his death in "Al-Aqrab Prison" in Cairo. The Islamic Group said that he died as a result of "medical negligence" for his treatment, especially as he was suffering from some diseases, including diabetes.

- The Construction and Development Party mourned Derbala, accusing the Egyptian authorities of torturing him and preventing medicines from entering him in prison, while refusing attempts to transfer him to the hospital, considering that what happened was a "premeditated murder and a clear assassination that requires criminal prosecution."

Between 2017 and 2018: The Construction and Development Party announced that it was not affiliated with internal or external alliances, including the Alliance to Support Legitimacy, which rejected the overthrow of the late President Mohamed Morsi, and confirmed the resignation of Tariq al-Zumar - one of its leaders abroad - from the party.

November 2018: The Egyptian Criminal Court placed the Islamic Group and 164 of its members and leaders on the lists of terrorism, and justified this measure by several considerations, most notably the abandonment of the initiative to stop violence, which the group and the party denied, stressing their commitment to peace.

May 30, 2020: The Political Parties Department of the Supreme Administrative Court issued a final and final ruling dissolving the Construction and Development Party, the political arm of the group, and decided to accept the request of the Political Parties Affairs Committee to dissolve the party, liquidate its funds and transfer them to the state's public treasury.