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The Seven Pillars of Terrorism

By Tarek Heggy

The word terrorism has been used to describe the activities of various groups over the last half century. For example, the British denounced the operations carried out by the Irish Republican Army as terrorism, while the same description was applied to the activities of such militant groups as ETA, the organization seeking autonomy for the Basque region lying between Spain and France, the Red Brigades in Italy, the Baader-Meinhof in Germany and similar movements in Japan and Latin America. However, when the word terrorism is mentioned today, what immediately springs to mind [in other than Arab and Muslim societies] is that an Arab or Muslim has committed an act of violence. The linkage between terrorism and Muslims has grown over the last six years, giving rise to the irrational fear of Islam known as Islamophobia. Still, there is no doubt that Muslims or Arabs are usually implicated in acts that are today described by the world as terrorism. There are two main schools of thought when it comes to addressing this phenomenon: one condemns Muslims in absolute terms, the other [Islamic] school justifies it as a reaction to what Muslims were and continue to be exposed to. With apologies to both schools, I would like here to adopt a novel approach by attempting to identify the sources or pillars of a phenomenon that has become one of the main areas of concern for a growing number of scholars and analysts throughout the world.

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Nine killed as car crashes into crowd in Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Nine Egyptians were killed and seven injured on Monday when a car crashed into a group of people celebrating a religious festival in the Sinai Peninsula, security sources said.

The car ploughed into a crowd of hundreds in the town of Hurghada celebrating a local saint. Its brakes had failed, the sources said, adding police were investigating the incident.

The injured were taken to two hospitals in Hurghada, a popular tourist destination on the Red Sea coast.
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Egyptian Muslims attack Christian-owned shops

Associated Press 

CAIRO (AP) - Angry Muslims attacked and destroyed shops owned by Coptic Christians on Sunday in a town in southern Egypt that been witnessing sectarian tensions, a police official said.

The attackers set hurled stones and set fire to several shops, smashed windows of a church and damaged two cars in the early morning hours before the shops in Isna were opened for business, said the police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Police detained 15 people suspected of taking part in the attacks in Isna, located about 350 miles south of Cairo, he said.

The riots followed reports that two Coptic Christians pulled down the veil of a Muslim woman in a car park on Saturday evening. Dozens of Muslims started to gather in protest very early Sunday, but police managed to disperse them.
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