The Qur’an suggests that ruins are a sign of Allah’s punishment of those who rejected his truth:
Many were the Ways of Life that have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected Truth. (Qur’an 3:137)
This is one of the foundations of the Islamic idea that pre-Islamic civilizations, and non-Islamic civilizations, are all jahiliyya — the society of unbelievers, which is worthless. Obviously this cuts against the idea of tourism of ancient sites and non-Muslim religious installations such as St. Catherine’s monastery. V. S. Naipaul encountered this attitude in his travels through Muslim countries. For many Muslims, he observed in Among the Believers, “The time before Islam is a time of blackness: that is part of Muslim theology. History has to serve theology.” Naipaul recounted that some Pakistani Muslims, far from valuing the nation’s renowned archaeological site at Mohenjo Daro, saw its ruins as a teaching opportunity for Islam, recommending that Qur’an 3:137 be posted there as a teaching tool.
“Sinai terrorist group targets Egypt’s tourist industry,” by Christa Case Bryant for the Christian Science Monitor, February 18 (thanks to Kenneth):
The most notorious Sinai terrorist group has now declared a new front: Egypt’s tourism industry.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bus bombing at Taba, a popular crossing point for tourists headed from Israel to Egypt’s Sinai resorts, in a statement posted on jihadi forums late yesterday. The bombing, which marks the first attack on tourists since Egypt’s 2011 revolution, killed three South Korean tourists and their Egyptian driver.
The Al Qaeda-inspired group heralded the “hero” who carried out the bus bombing, and cast the attack as part of a broader attempt to undermine Egypt’s military leaders, who overthrew Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood last summer and stepped up cooperation with Israel to stamp out Sinai militant groups.
“This comes within our assault in the economic war on this traitorous agent regime,” said the statement attributed to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. “We will target [the Egyptian regime’s] economic interests everywhere to paralyze its hands from what they do to the Muslims.”
In a December statement, the group said that it considered the Egyptian military “non-Muslim because it fights those who attempt to impose Islamic law, and protects a secular form of government… We are the most resolute and determined to carry out the command of (God) and his messenger to do jihad against you and fight you until all the religion is for (God),” it said, according to a translation by SITE Intelligence Group.
Israeli defense experts have labeled Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis – whose name refers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and surrounding sanctuary in Jerusalem – as the most dangerous militant organization in Sinai, not least of all for its August 2011 attack on Israeli civilians near Eilat.
According to a tally by the Long War Journal, 305 attacks have been launched by Sinai militant groups since the July 3 overthrow of Mr. Morsi, and Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis was behind many of the worst attacks, including a Nov. 20 car bombing that killed 11 Egyptian security forces.
The group, founded in 2011, focused on targets in Israel and the Sinai until last summer, but it has now spearheaded a broadening of operations to mainland Egypt, including Cairo. Those attacks have included assassination attempts on top Egyptian security officials and a series of car bombings targeting security directorates. While civilians were among those injured in such attacks, Sunday’s bus bombing marks the first time that the Sinai insurgency has targeted tourists.
While Egypt’s tourism industry has been hard-hit by the political turmoil of the past few years, its Sinai beach resorts have still been able to attract significant tourist traffic; of the 9.5 million tourists in Egypt last year, nearly three-quarters of them vacationed in the Sinai, according to the Associated Press.
Tourism in the Sinai has been the target of militant attacks in the not too distant past. In October of 2004, 34 people were killed in coordinated bombings of the Hilton Hotel in Taba and a nearby beach camp popular with Israelis. In July of 2005, over 80 people were killed by coordinated car bombs in the resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh.
Now, Sinai militants are warning all tourists to leave by Feb. 20 or be killed….
joeb says
It beggars belief that some morons are still travelling to Egypt for a vacation.
I guarantee you that despite this announcement, they will continue to do so. Get ready for more tourists being murdered in Egypt.
Stephen Poole says
… Let’s talk about monkeys’ again … … Monkeys are territorial … The biggest, toughest male subjugates all o’ the other males (… by beating them up …), then, he gets all !! o’ the (… monkey …) chicks … … There is a kinda an odd parallel here, but, I’m not goin’ there … “Adam Resla” may want my “banana” (… pun NOT intended …) … Take care folks … SP OX …
King Dave says
Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (Arabic: أنصار بيت المقدس,or supporters of the holy house) (also known as Ansar Jerusalem, meaning “Supporters of Jerusalem”)[3][4] is an active militant group that has been operating in the Sinai Peninsula.[5] The group is believed to be the main group behind the militant activity in the Sinai.[6] The group recruits Bedouins as well as other Egyptians and people of other nationalities….Wiki
Boko Haram in Nigeria murdered more people last Saturday than these guys did their entire career. But the world doesn’t care about Nigerians
Foolster41 says
Well, it’s good the MB was kicked out of Egypt and will never be in power again! Now there will be freedom and equality… by people who still want to impose sharia law.
Oh. Wait.
Foolster says
Well! It’s a good thing the MB is gone, and will never return to power! Now the free Muslims can… impart sharia law like always.
Oh.
Transmaster says
You talk about stupid. There was a mass shooting by the Jihad Talaat al-Fath in 1997 at Temple of Hatshepsut they murdered 62 people. The Egyptian government knowing this sort of thing would kill tourism with is the major source of income for Egypt and it’s people where ruthless in their response. Just about the only members of the various terrorist jihadist groups that survived where those who managed to get out of the county everyone one was annihilated. I am so worried about Saint Catherine’s Monastery, at Mount Sinai. Their Library has books going back the the 6th century, It is fortunate the Google Library Project has already been there. This priceless Library has been scanned and now resides in the internet.
Salah says
Don’t worry about Sinai, the army is doing a great job there. It will take some time, but in the end they will prevail. The Muslim Brotherhood vermins and their allies are already running like cockroaches.
shaun watson says
running like cockraoches to the UK
Champ says
mohammedans never miss an opportunity to level a death threat …and are they trying to appear *merciful* by giving tourists a chance to escape with their lives? Oh, how very merciful and kind of them–NOT!
David Holmes says
i would be dressing in bathers and shorts to entrap these guys. They won’t know the difference at 100 meters and won’t care if the disguised are men or not. Any goat, sheep or port in a storm.
Foolster says
@Salah: Uh huh. Do you seriously believe the only Muslims who want to impose sharia law is the MB? You think once the MB is kicked out that a Muslim majority will start treating non-Muslims with respect?
Why on earth would you believe that? Your constant comments to this effect is the reason for my sarcastic comment above. It’s getting darn tiring.
Anushirvan says
Salah is underestimating the capabilities of Jihadi groups to remodel their organizations to the point where they have devolved from centralized structures with intricate infrastructures (like localized terror training bases or madrassa networks) like al Qaeda to smaller cells with a limited number of members and resources to get the job done. It’s easier for the latter groups to fly under the radar of security agencies, both in the West and abroad.
The only thing these people need are the necessary manuals (like Inspire Magazine) to cook up a terrorist plot. Which makes them more dangerous in fact than organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood at this point. They can easily hide from the public conscience, until the shit hits the fan, and then other individuals will fill the gap they leave when they get arrested.
The army isn’t going to solve this any time soon, and neither are security agencies in the West. Salah is being way too optimistic !!!
irongal says
Coming soon to a tourist attraction near you.
Salah says
@Foolster
“Do you seriously believe the only Muslims who want to impose sharia law is the MB?”
All Islamic parties do. But guess what, the new Egyptian constitution, approved by 98.5% of the people, won’t allow religion based parties anymore. The MB one-year-rule has damaged the reputation of ALL Islamic parties including the famous Salafist Al-Nour party who won’t even dare allow its candidate to run for office.
“You think once the MB is kicked out that a Muslim majority will start treating non-Muslims with respect?”
Yes, I do. According to the new constitution, Christians will have the right to build and repair churches, a right they haven’t had for decades, if not for centuries. The general mindset has changed. Muslims are realizing that the real enemies are not the Copts but rather the MB and their ilks.
@Anushirvan
“Salah is underestimating the capabilities of Jihadi groups to remodel their organizations”
No, I’m not. Jihadi groups will always exist and operate, but they’ve lost the support of the average Muslim, at least in the case of Egypt. Don’t forget that the MB is the spiritual “mother” of all JIhadi groups including Al Qaeda.
“Salah is being way too optimistic !!!”
I AM optimistic. I grew up in Egypt and I’m closely following the events on a daily basis. Ask any Egyptian Christian and you’ll feel optimism in his answers. I’m also realistic; I don’t expect 14 centuries of brainwashing to simply disappear in few decades, much less in a couple of years, it will take more time. In other words, I’m optimistic BECAUSE I’m realistic.
BTW, does anyone know what happened to the “reply” button? We surely miss it!
Defcon 4 says
Gee, the Egyptian Coptic Christians I met in my ACT for America chapter don’t share your enthusiasm for islam and islamic persecution under Mubarak et. al. is exactly why they left Egyptistan.
Strange how Egypt’s Jews left en mass while under “moderate” islamic dictators like Mubarak, Sadat and “push the Jews into the sea” Nasser for the exact, same reasons Egypt’s Coptic Christians are leaving now.
1389AD says
@ joeb,
Orthodox Christians make religious pilgrimages to St. Catherine’s. It’s risky, but I’d go there if I had the means. I’d try to pick a better time than just now though.
dumbledoresarmy says
Let’s all just think about what the Sinai would be like now, if Israel had not been forced to give it back to the Mohammedans in the 1950s after winning control of it in self-defensive warfare…or if Israel had not been forced to give it back to the Mohammedans after 1973, again, after gaining control of it in the course of defending herself against the genocide that the massed Mohammedan mobs intended to inflict on her. If Israel had retained and annexed all of the Sinai that they won in defensive warfare, and had settled it and fortified it and was responsible for security there.
St Catherine’s Monastery would be about as safe as any place can reasonably be, and the safety of Christian pilgrims and international tourists (not necessarily pilgrims) and of the resident monks and of visiting scholars and archaeologists would be *guaranteed* by the vigilance of the IDF, Mossad, etc.
Just think what might have been…
All, all of it thrown away because of the blind fools, the closet antisemites, the corrupted Islamophiles / Arabophiles and useful-idiot appeasers in the US State Department, the British Foreign Office, and any number of other places.
Foolster says
@Salah:
“All Islamic parties do. But guess what, the new Egyptian constitution, approved by 98.5% of the people, won’t allow religion based parties anymore. The MB one-year-rule has damaged the reputation of ALL Islamic parties including the famous Salafist Al-Nour party who won’t even dare allow its candidate to run for office.”
(In response to being asked if Salah believes kicking out the MB will increase the rights of non-Muslims)
“Yes, I do. According to the new constitution, Christians will have the right to build and repair churches, a right they haven’t had for decades, if not for centuries. The general mindset has changed. Muslims are realizing that the real enemies are not the Copts but rather the MB and their ilks.”
So what you’re saying is either all the Muslims in Egypt magically disappeared or are no longer Muslims and have apostates (since an adherence to Sharia, and mistreatment of non-muslims as inferior is an inate part of Islam). That’d be great news, but I think you’d understand why I’m skeptical, especially in light of the news in this article.
Also, let’s take a look at what the Ehyptian constitution says (Source: http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-s-draft-constitution-translated). If this is wrong, please point me to a correct source.
“Article 2
Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic its official language. Principles of Islamic Sharia are the principal source of legislation.”
Oh look, Islam is the state religion and Sharia the law of the land. Yep, freedom and happiness will come for non-Muslims all right, if we just squint our eyes and take it from you! Never mind our lying eyes! I mean, Islam is peaceful and Sharia is actually good and tollerant to non-muslims, right?
Who gets freedom of religion anyway?
“Article 43
Freedom of belief is an inviolable right.
The State shall guarantee the freedom to practice religious rites and to establish places of worship for the divine religions, as regulated by law.”
‘The divine religions’. Who is that? I beleive this is a refrence to Christianity, Islam and Jeudism. Basicly, you get freedom of religion if your a monotheist! Ah, great freedom!
“Article 44
Insult or abuse of all religious messengers and prophets shall be prohibited.
Article 45
Freedom of thought and opinion shall be guaranteed.
Every individual has the right to express an opinion and to disseminate it verbally, in writing or illustration, or by any other means of publication and expression.”
What now? Freedom of speech, but you can’t criticize prophets? Hmm. This sounds like the same old religious fascism, but you know, we should be completely overjoyed! We should listen to Salah who grew up in Egypt and has some sort of inside information, and is knows more than us and our lying eyes! La la la!
Foolster says
Also, note that “insult” is in there. I mean, after all, prohibiting INSULT of Islam has NEVER been used to attempt to silence people from criticizing Islam, right?!
gravenimage says
Egypt: Sinai jihadists say all tourists must leave by Feb. 20 or be killed
………………………………….
Not, of course, that they are waiting for the 20th…
More:
The Qur’an suggests that ruins are a sign of Allah’s punishment of those who rejected his truth
………………………………….
*Very* important point. All examples of the pre-Islamic or the non-Islamic are so much worthless Jahilliya, just like the Bamiyan Buddhas.
And what that mean in a place like Egypt? It means that all the riches of ancient Egypt, of Ptolemaic Egypt, of Roman Egypt, of Christian Egypt are fair game for destruction—along with anyone who dares to visit or try to preserve such artifacts.
Respected Jihad Watch poster Dominic was an archeologist before his untimely death. He told a deeply disturbing story of going with a group to Pakistan to study petroglyphs, and finding that local Muslims under the auspices of an Imam were systematically destroying the works.
They believed that they were some sort of messages left by the British. When the archeologists told them the true sources of the work—ancient pre-Islamic peoples—the Muslims didn’t believe them, saying that there was nothing before Islam.
When they continued to argue, the Imam said that if what they were saying *was* true, it was *all the more reason* to destroy the work. Under threat, the archeologists retreated.
More:
The most notorious Sinai terrorist group has now declared a new front: Egypt’s tourism industry.
………………………………….
Actually, the Muslim Brotherhood has already trashed Egypt’s tourist industry. It has shown occasional signs of life sine the MB’s ouster; now pious Muslims are making sure that this doesn’t happen.
Remember when some clueless sorts in the West opined that the whole reason for the “Arab Spring” was to agitate for more economic opportunity? The fact is that the economies of “Arab Spring” nations have *tanked* since the “Arab Spring”, with both tourists and investors staying away in droves.
However bad things were before, they are *much* worse now—and these pious Jihadists like it that way.
More:
The Al Qaeda-inspired group heralded the “hero” who carried out the bus bombing…
………………………………….
What could be more “heroic” than murdering three unarmed tourists and a bus driver? *Ugh*.
More:
“This comes within our assault in the economic war on this traitorous agent regime,” said the statement attributed to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. “We will target [the Egyptian regime’s] economic interests everywhere to paralyze its hands from what they do to the Muslims.”
………………………………….
Note the Takfir—they have essentially declared the Egyptian government non-Muslim. And we all know what that means—they are fair game for slaughter, just like these Christian victims.
More:
In a December statement, the group said that it considered the Egyptian military “non-Muslim because it fights those who attempt to impose Islamic law, and protects a secular form of government… We are the most resolute and determined to carry out the command of (God) and his messenger to do jihad against you and fight you until all the religion is for (God)”
………………………………….
This last is Qur’an 8: 39:
“And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah.”
And notice what pious Muslims consider “persecution”—the presence of Christian tourists visiting monasteries and ruins.
God, I hate Islam.
gravenimage says
Foolster, thanks for the details from Egypt’s new constitution.
I am very glad that the Muslim Brotherhood is out of power, but it is abundantly clear that the new regime has *not* rejected Islam, and is not going to protect non-Muslim minorities—let alone treat them as equal citizens.
Islamonausea says
The continued existence of those ruins crafted by superior intelligence than islam’s and the fact that the people of the civilized world whose forebear built them still vist and revisit to appreciate the fineries of such perfect workmanship by the original African Egyptians and not the murderous Arabs who killed them all to purloin their land and heritage is giving the terrorist a kick of unease on their seared consciences.
Egypt, Sudan, Morroco, Tunisia, Libya et al were all black men’s land who at best were Christians and black Africans that been supplanted by the murderous ancestors of the Arabs who now have Egypt and these places as homes.
Only Israel even though they were almost losing their right to Israel, their blessed homeland before 1948 like most other peoples originally indigenous to the Middle East made a strong and potent comeback post 1948 vide the 7 day war.
The world must not stand idly bye and watch these heinous Arabs complete their evil schemes by driving off through extremism, terrorism and selective annihilation the Copts, Jews and Black African population of Egypt.
The Africans of South Sudan stood up to islamic supremacists ofNorth Sudan and that is a modern day play by play of reenactment of what happened to the unfortunate ancestors of Black Africans in North Africa.