SIS decries Arish attack, sends worldwide message

CAIRO – 24 November 2017: A Friday bomb and gun assault on al-Rawdah mosque in north Sinai killed at least 235 people and injured 109 others.

A group of terrorists stormed the mosque in west Arish City in four off-road vehicles and opened fire on worshippers during Friday prayers after a bomb was detonated, according to eyewitnesses.

The State Information Service (SIS) strongly condemned the attack and issued a statement as follows:

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The State Information Service (SIS) sends its warmest condolences to the families of the Arish attack victims and all Egyptians living in the country and abroad; despite being taken by the magnitude of the malevolent, barbaric crime.

The SIS affirms its stance with the people of Egypt, their leadership, armed forces, and security personnel in defeating the menace of terrorism and uprooting this misled segment and all the harm it has done to human values. The SIS believes in Egypt’s ability of purifying the land of their menace, halting their funders and supporters, be they states or organizations within the region or abroad, and whether their support comes financially, in terms of weapons, or misled media.

Simultaneously, the SIS affirms that the preliminary investigations carried out in this crime reveal many facts, such as the following:

First: This crime proves the brutal, animalistic nature of the terrorist organizations that Egypt is facing, and their shamelessness in committing faithless, inhumane crimes.

Second: This crime reveals a clear divergence in the method of terrorism and in the nature of terrorist organizations’ goals. The crime unveils the extent these organizations have reached in Egypt in terms of weakness, desperation, and the deterioration of their capabilities before the pressure of facing the effective security measures taken. As a result, they have directed their efforts toward an easy target; a mosque hosting innocent worshipers of varying ages, violating all sacred, Islamic teachings.

Third: The crime reflects the extent of extremist ideology that these organizations – that are cowering behind the veil of religion, even though wearing a political cape – have reached. After targeting army and police personnel, state institutions, the homeland’s Coptic Christian sons and daughters and their places of worship under false religious pretenses, they have now moved to attacking God’s mosques and killing the innocent Muslim worshiping civilians in them; a precedent that has never been undertaken by other than extreme groups targeting Muslims.

Fourth: Even though the Al-Rawdah attack, in addition to all previous ones, is heinous, it is evident and certain that terrorist attacks never occur in any other arena except in North Sinai, in an area that does not exceed 30 kilometers squared from Egypt’s total area of one million square kilometers. Thus, the State of Egypt, society, and region remain with an overwhelming majority far from the reach of terrorist bloodshed.

Fifth: It is a certainty today that the genuine target that terrorist groups have and always will pursue is the Egyptian people as a whole, in terms of their security, stability, livelihood, solidarity, and lives.

Egypt as a whole is the target; not just a specific political regime or segment. The battle has become evident in its decisive stage; the entire Egyptian populace is unified in facing a hired, faithless, and funded bunch of nemeses of the Egyptian state and humanity as a whole.

Sixth: This heinous crime carries a message to some international media outlets that have been quite evasive to the last minute to clearly use the term “terrorism”; today there was no room left for using their usual phrases such as “armed opposition”, “political violence”, “fighters”, “regime conflict” or “armed conflict”. If until now some international media channels do not perceive the events as terroristic or those elements as coldblooded, inhumane murderers, then they will become accomplices in terms of encouraging, covering, and evading these kinds of crimes.

Seventh: This crime is an alarm to organizations that have mastered bargaining in human rights banners that some of the fabricated, instigating, and exaggerated reports that these organizations have issued are an accomplice to justifying – even if unintentionally – these crimes. Those paying lip service to terrorists must settle their stance today, and we have to hear from them – even if in a few words – about the rights of the innocent victims to life first before their rights to fulfilling their religious rituals of worship in their homes.

Eighth: It is a message to the entire world today, with all its states and organizations, that it is time to move effectively against terrorism, and strike with a hand of iron its funders and supporters, whether financially, with weapons, training, or even by justifying their crimes in misled media outlets, and those are known to the entire world.

On all international podiums, Egypt has repeatedly called for halting this terrorism that will lead to trivializing the eradication of its funding and support and its subsequent proliferation in every corner of the earth.

Egypt, as a people and leadership, will preserve in bravely facing terrorism and protecting its people on behalf of humanity. Victory in this battle is inevitable for the people of Egypt and history will speak of it as an example.