Islamic movements used violence against society: Al Zomor

CAIRO – 21 April 2018: Al Jama'a Islamiyya leader and founder of its Building and Development Party, Tarek al-Zomor, admited Islamic political powers’ mistake in using violence against the communities within which they exist.

In a statement to a website affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Zomor said that the most prominent flaw of the Islamic powers was that they believed they can change the political, economic and cultural conditions of their societies through violence.

Another flaw was the establishment of parallel entities to societies; instead, they should have ensured integration of Islamic movements among their societies.

The Egyptian fugitive added that the Islamic movements had not given the chance for new generations to take over the leadership of the movements or even to prepare them to qualify for this role, pointing out that the 2011 Revolution was in part a protest against the old leadership of the opposition movements, whether Islamic or non-Islamic.

Given the developments and the enormous changes witnessed by the world and the region over the past forty years, Zomor concluded that there is an urgent need for a new Islamic project or a re-launch of the old project after altering it to suit the times.

Zomor was convicted in 1984 alongside his cousin Aboud al-Zomor for their role in the assassination of Egypt’s former President Anwar Sadat and belonging to the Islamic Jihad group. They were later released from prison in May 2011, a few months after former president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in the 2011 revolution.

After ousting former president Mohamed Morsi in June 2013, Zomor and other Islamists from Al Jama'a Islamiyya fled to Turkey.

The Egyptian authorities have sent several requests to Interpol to extradite wanted terrorists, including those in Qatar and Turkey, who were recently designated terrorists by Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This is part of Egypt’s war against terrorism.