Terrorism in Egypt in the 20th and 21st centuries has targeted Egyptian government officials, Egyptian police and Egyptian army members, tourists, Sufi Mosques, and the Christian minority. These attacks have had a profound impact on the country's stability, economy, and social fabric.
The connection between terrorism and tourism has been widely studied since the Luxor massacre in Egypt in 1997. Attacks cause countries to issue travel advisories, on steps to take for safety or countries issue travel warnings, asking tourists to avoid all but necessary travel to Egypt.
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Early Instances of Terrorism
In 1943, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group-a very large and active organization at that time-was thought to have established "a 'secret apparatus'".
After the 1948 victory of the Jewish state of Israel over Muslim Arab armies the group is believed to have set fire to homes of Jews in Cairo in June 1948 in retaliation. In July, two large department stores in Cairo owned by Jews were also burned. A couple of months later police captured documents and plans of the 'secret apparatus.
On 28 December 1948, Prime Minister Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha was shot and assassinated by Abdel Meguid Ahmed Hassan, a veterinary student and member of the Brotherhood. The country was shocked and traditionalist clergy condemned the act.
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After a nationalist military coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the Egyptian monarchy, the Brotherhood was very disappointed to find the officers were secular in orientation and the Brotherhood did not gain influence.
A covert operation under the direction of Israeli military intelligence attempted to destabilize the Nasser government in the summer of 1954 through terrorist bombings of Egyptian, American and British government facilities. The operation was unsuccessful and the Israeli-trained Egyptian Jewish operatives who planted the bombs were all captured, although all of their Israeli handlers escaped.
On 18 April 1974, 100 members of the Islamic Liberation Organization (or Shabab Muhammad Group) stormed the armory of the Military Technical College in Cairo, seizing weapons and vehicles. Led by Salih Sirriya they hoped to kill President Anwar El Sadat and other top Egyptian officials - who were attending an official event nearby in the Arab Socialist Building - seize radio and television buildings (also nearby) and announce the birth of an Islamic State under the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir. 11 were killed and 27 wounded in the attempt as security forces were able to intercept conspirators before they left the academy. 95 ILO members are arrested and tried. 32 were convicted.
On 3 July 1977, a group known to the public as Takfir wal-Hijra (excommunication and exile), kidnapped former Egyptian government minister Muhammad al-Dhahabi. The group was led by a self-taught Islamic preacher Shukri Mustafa, and called themselves Jama'at al-Muslimin.
By 1981 President Anwar Sadat had become unpopular among some Egyptians and enraged Islamists by signing of a peace treaty with Israel. On 6 October 1981, Sadat and six diplomats were assassinated while observing a military parade commemorating the eighth anniversary of the October 1973 War.
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In conjunction with the assassination of Sadat, Tanzim al-Jihad began an insurrection in Asyut in Upper Egypt. Rebels took control of the city for a few days on 8 October 1981 before paratroopers from Cairo restored government control.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor and leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad group, was believed to be behind the operations of al-Qaeda. In spring of 1981, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman agreed to become the mufti of the shura (council) of underground Egyptian group Tanzim al-Jihad, the forerunner of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya.
Attacks on Tourists
Terrorism and tourism in Egypt is when terrorist attacks are specifically aimed at Egypt's tourists. These attacks often end in fatalities and injuries and have an immediate and sometimes lasting effect on the industry.
Attacks take many forms; blowing up an airplane carrying tourists,[1] drive-by shootings of tourists, knife attacks on tourists and suicide bombings in a location where tourists are congregated. On the timeline of these events, the 1997 Luxor Massacre stands out as the worst in the history of attacks on tourists in Egypt.
The Ras Burqa massacre was a shooting attack in October 1985 on Israeli vacationers in Ras Burqa, a beach resort area in the Sinai peninsula, in which seven Israelis were killed, including four children. On 4 February 1990, a bus carrying tourists in Egypt was attacked by members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Eleven people were killed, including nine Israelis, and 17 wounded (sixteen of whom were Israelis).
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The violent Islamic insurgency during the 1990s targeted police and government officials but also civilians including tourists. 1993 was a particularly severe year for terrorist attacks in Egypt. 1106 persons were killed or wounded.
On 29 March 1993, al-Jama`a al-Islamiya caused an explosion at the Pyramid of Khafre. On 8 June 1993, a bomb lobbed at a tour bus in Giza's Pyramid Rock, killed foreign tourists and Egyptians.
On 18 April 1996, gunmen opened fire on Greek tourists who were about to board a bus outside Cairo's Europa Hotel, near the pyramids.
The Luxor Massacre took place on 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahri, an archaeological site and tourist destination located across the River Nile from Luxor, Egypt. In the mid-morning attack, Islamic terrorists from Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Group") and Talaa'al al-Fateh (Vanguards of Conquest), both of which are suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, massacred 58 tourists at the attraction. The six assailants, armed with automatic firearms and knives, were disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45 and massacred 62 people, their modus operandi including beheadings and disembowellings.
2000s: Sinai Bombings and Beyond
The 2004 Sinai bombings were three bomb attacks targeting tourist hotels in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, on 7 October 2004. The attacks killed 34 people and injured 171. In the Taba attack, a truck drove into the lobby of the Taba Hilton and exploded, killing 31 people and wounding some 159 others. Ten floors of the hotel collapsed following the blast. Some 50 kilometers (31 mi) south, at campsites at Ras al-Shitan, near Nuweiba, two more bombings happened. A car parked in front of a restaurant at the Moon Island resort exploded, killing three Israelis and a Bedouin.
Of the dead, many were foreigners: 12 were from Israel, two from Italy, one from Russia, and one was an Israeli-American. The rest of the dead were believed to be Egyptian. According to the Egyptian government, the bombers were Palestinians who had tried to enter Israel to carry out attacks there but were unsuccessful.
The April 2005 attacks in Cairo were three related incidents that took place in Cairo on 7 April and 30 April 2005. In the first attack, however, three bystanders were killed. Two groups claimed responsibility - the Mujahedeen of Egypt and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.
The 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks were a series of bomb attacks on 23 July 2005, targeting the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, located on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. 88 people were killed and over 150 were wounded by the blasts. A group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades (a reference to militant Islamist ideologue Abdullah Yusuf Azzam) was the first to claim responsibility for the attacks.
The Dahab bombings of 24 April 2006 were three bomb attacks on the Egyptian resort city of Dahab. At about 19:15 local time on 24 April 2006 - a public holiday in celebration of Sham Al-Nasseim (Spring festival or Easter) - a series of bombs exploded in tourist areas of Dahab, a resort located on the Gulf of Aqaba coast of the Sinai Peninsula.
In September 2008, a group of eleven European tourists and eight Egyptians were kidnapped during an adventure safari to one of the remotest sites in Egypt deep in the Sahara desert and taken to Sudan.
More Recent Events
In February 2009, the Khan el-Khalili bombing killed a French schoolgirl on a class trip in Cairo. On 23 January 2011, the Egyptian minister of interior Habib El Adli stated that Ahmed Lotfi Ibrahim Mohammed confessed to monitoring Christian and Jewish places of worship and sending pictures of the Qideseen church in Alexandria to the Army of Islam.
The Sinai insurgency comprises a series of actions by Islamist militants in the Sinai peninsula, initiated in early 2011 as a fallout of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. In May 2013, following an abduction of Egyptian officers, violence in the Sinai surged once again.
On 31 October 2015 Metrojet Flight 9268 mysteriously dropped out of the sky over the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 passengers on board. IS has now several times claimed responsibility for the incident, and authorities from several countries now agree that the most plausible scenarios is bomb smuggled on board at the airport.
On 11 December 2016, an explosion occurred next to the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral complex in Cairo, at the Church of Saints Peter & Paul. The explosion killed as many as 29 people, mostly women and children, and injured many more. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
On 8 January 2016, two suspected militants, armed with a melee weapon and a signal flare, allegedly arrived by sea and stormed the Bella Vista Hotel in the Red Sea city of Hurghada, stabbing two foreign tourists from Austria and one from Sweden. On 14 July 2017 Abdel-Rahman Shaaban, a former university student from the Nile Delta region, swam from a public beach to each of two resort hotel beaches at Hurghada on the Red Sea and stabbed five German and one Czech tourists, all women, killing two German women.
On Palm Sunday 9 April 2017, explosions occurred in St. George's Church in Tanta and St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria. 30 people were killed at St. George’s and 17 at St.
On 24 November 2017, approximately 40 gunmen attacked the al-Rawda mosque near El-Arish Sinai during Friday prayers, killing 311 people and injured at least 122. On 29 December 2017, in Helwan, Cairo, Egypt, a gunman opened fire at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Menas and a nearby shop owned by a Coptic man, killing ten citizens and a police officer and injuring around ten people.
On 28 December 2018, three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian tour guide were killed after a roadside bomb struck a tourist bus in the Giza region near Cairo. On 4 August 2019, at least 20 people were killed and 47 injured after a car, heavily loaded with a bomb, collided with other vehicles, causing an explosion outside National Cancer Institute in Cairo.
Impact on Tourism
Attacks carried out by different extremists have an immediate effect on tourism, an important part of Egypt's economy. In the first six months of 2018, tourism revenue had increased by 71% to $4.8 billion amid an upsurge of visitors. The Egyptian tourism industry is one of the most important sectors of Egypt's economy, in terms of employment and foreign currency, and at times it has been as much as 1% of the world tourism market. The many constituents of tourism include historical attractions, especially in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, but also beach and other sea activities, with foreign tourism actively encouraged since it is a major source of currency and investment.
Around 1992, the new tactic of attacking tourists was noted by then President Mubarak who addressed the parliament on the grave effects these growing number of attacks by Muslim fundamentalist could have on Egypt's $2 billion tourism industry.
The amount of news coverage a disaster gets and its effects on the tourism industry of that country has been studied by experts like Dr. Gabby Walters from the University of Queensland, Australia.
The Egyptian Pyramids attract millions of visitors each year and tourists also visit places in Upper Egypt, the Egyptian museums, Coptic Cairo, ancient monasteries, Mount Sinai, the Red Sea Riviera, places with Islamic culture and Islamic art, and other places.
When tourism was recovering, the downing of an airplane which had left Sharm El Sheikh airport, with Russian tourists on 31 October 2015, sent shock waves through the industry again. The cause was a suspected bomb and speculation largely fell on an airport worker. After the downing of the jet, "scared tourists" left the area, affecting the Bedouin population who worked in the tourism industry. Russian and Britain stopped all flights to Sharm El Sheikh.
Whether targeting Egypt's Coptic Christians, tourists or both, an attack on 18 April 2017 near St. Catherine's Monastery, leaving a number of police officers injured came at a critical time, when Egypt was anxiously awaiting a decision on whether flights from Russia would resume.
The Sinai bus crash in August 2006, in which 11 Arab Israelis were killed, may have been premeditated. In 2004, tourism from Israel all but stopped after three incidents. Before 2004, "400,000 Israelis visited the peninsula each year. Reuters reported that Sinai's militants had turned their attention from security forces to tourists or soft targets.
The explosion was caught on camera when on 16 February 2014, four civilians including three South Korean tourists were killed in what is known as the 2014 Taba bus bombing. The bomber detonated his device on a tour bus carrying more than 30 members of a South Korean church group. They had traveled from Cairo to Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula.
The drop in tourism was immense after the Russian tourists on the airplane were killed. In 2016 tourists were attacked in Hurghada, resulting in the wounding of the two people. On 19 September 2008, tourists were held hostage by a number of men who took them into the Western desert and demanded ransom money.
Researchers studying terrorism and tourism said that "Random acts of terrorism curtail travel activity until the public's memories of the publicized incidents fade.
Egypt Tourism Statistics (2017-2019)
| Year | Tourism Revenue (USD Billions) | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | N/A | N/A |
| 2018 (First 6 months) | 4.8 | +71% |
| 2019 | N/A | N/A |
Note: Data may be incomplete due to limited availability.
Government Response and Emergency Laws
Coptic Christians in Egypt have faced escalating threats since a December 11, 2016, ISIS suicide bombing at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo, which killed at least 25 people and wounded 49. At least seven Coptic Christians in North Sinai, the stronghold of Egypt’s ISIS affiliate, were killed in the following months, prompting the majority of Coptic residents in al-Arish, the area’s biggest town, to flee to mainland Egypt.
Coptic Christians, an estimated 10 percent of the Egyptian population, face widespread legal and social discrimination and are routinely denied high-level government and security services jobs. They have been the victims of increasing sectarian attacks since the 2011 uprising, particularly since July 2013, when the military removed Mohamed Morsy, Egypt’s first freely elected president.
Egypt’s emergency law, which dates to 1958, gives the authorities sweeping powers to arrest, detain, try, and sentence suspects with almost no judicial review. Though al-Sisi’s administration has taken numerous steps to recreate the powers Mubarak had during the state of emergency - including a broad counterterrorism law passed in 2015 - the emergency law goes further.
A state of emergency allows for trials before Emergency State Security Courts, whose composition is determined by the president and whose verdicts cannot be appealed. It allows the authorities to arrest and search suspects without warrants, conduct surveillance on and censor any publication, seize property, forcibly evacuate areas, restrict public meetings, and set opening and closing times for businesses.
In June 2013, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that the emergency law’s warrantless arrest and search powers violated the constitution. On April 11, a parliamentary committee proposed amendments to the emergency law to bring it in line with the court’s 2013 ruling.
In practice, Egyptian authorities have exercised de facto emergency powers since the military removed President Morsy. The government has effectively banned opposition protests, and police and Interior Ministry National Security officers have arbitrarily arrested thousands of suspects, used torture routinely to elicit confessions, and forcibly disappeared hundreds for months at a time.
Courts and prosecutors have issued mass death sentences and held hundreds of other detainees in preventive detention for more than two years, exceeding the amount of time allowed by law. Under international law, governments may declare a state of emergency when there is a “public emergency that threatens the life of the nation,” but the emergency restrictions must be proportionate and limited to the greatest extent possible in both time and area.
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