Al-Sisi Cracks Down on Islamists as Jihad Violence Continues

The Giza Criminal Court in Egypt sentenced 183 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death, including 34 in absentia, on Monday. The men were charged with and convicted of involvement in the killings of 16 policemen in the town of Kardasa in August 2013, which occurred in the midst of the military’s removal of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from power.

Since General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected president he has actively pursued the Brotherhood, declaring it a terrorist organization in December 2013. He has actively sought to eliminate the Brotherhood and all forms of Islamic extremism from Egypt, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests. The 183 men sentenced to death were part of a violent and increasing Islamist protest to Sisi’s governance, which takes many forms.

The most recent manifestation of this mass-violence took place on January 29. Sinai Province, ISIS’s affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula, took credit for coordinated attacks in northern Sinai, which left at least 26 people dead and 60 wounded.

The group claiming responsibility, the Sinai Province of the Islamic State, formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, first targeted a military base and hotel in el-Arish, north Sinai’s capital. Military checkpoints were also targeted including one in Rafah, where an army major and six other unspecified civilians were killed. A roadside bomb also killed a police officer in Suez City, and four soldiers were later injured in a strike outside an el-Arish checkpoint.

While Sinai Province took credit for the attacks, Egypt’s military spokesman blamed the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian government has motivation to connect ISIS to the Brotherhood, but some believe ISIS’s Sinai wing does indeed have a link to the Brotherhood and that the latter helped form and fund the former.

The Brotherhood appears to have a further potential connection to the Sinai attacks in the wake of its visit to the U.S. State Department. A delegation of the group’s leaders met with State Department officials in Washington, DC to discuss the Brotherhood’s resistance to President Sisi’s government.

After this meeting and two days before the January 29 violence, the Muslim Brotherhood called for a “long, uncompromised jihad.” It is unknown whether this call to jihad has a connection to the attacks claimed by Sinai Province, but it is, at the very least, a noteworthy coincidence.

Furthermore, a video surfaced on January 29 on Muslim Brotherhood TV calling on all foreign nationals, foreign companies, foreign diplomats, and tourists to leave Egypt. Each group of people was given a specific deadline in February to meet the demands. Additionally, the video states that all who support the current Egyptian government must stop their activities immediately. The video warned that anyone who does not follow these instructions will be subject to “revolutionary retribution” and receive no mercy. The Brotherhood denies that this video is theirs, as they naturally would, but the video is troubling.

The Brotherhood suffered a further setback when an Egyptian judiciary court declared the Hamas military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a terrorist organization. An unspecified plaintiff brought accusations that the Muslim Brotherhood had been in coordination with Hamas, its Palestinian wing, for weapons and places of refuge within the Gaza Strip in exchange for coordinated terrorist strikes, according to top Egyptian security officials. In retaliation for the reported coordination between the two jihadist groups, the Egyptian military has been identifying and destroying smuggling routes and tunnels along the Egyptian-Gaza border.

Ultimately, sentencing 183 Muslim Brothers to death is dramatic, but it should be examined in the context of Egypt’s (and America’s) struggle with the global jihad movement. President Sisi’s efforts to eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic extremist groups may be repressive, but he is directly combating forces that support, privately and publicly, terrorism around the world. He is now engaged in a fight with ISIS in the form of Sinai Province, and the Muslim Brotherhood, which is openly targeting the Egyptian government. More Arab leaders should follow President Sisi’s lead to properly address the main source of violence.