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Egypt: Jihad suicide bomber attacks Luxor temple tourist site

Jun 10, 2015 5:52 pm By Robert Spencer

EGYPT-VIOLENCE/ATTACKIslamic supremacists hate pagan antiquities. They are the remnants of jahiliyya, the pre-Islamic period of ignorance. They could provoke idolatry. They consequently must be destroyed. “Suicide bomber attacks Egypt’s Luxor temple tourist site,” by Louisa Loveluck and Magdy Samaan, Telegraph, June 10, 2015:

A suicide bomber blew himself up near one of Egypt’s most popular tourist sites on Wednesday, wounding four people, including two policemen.

Although officials said no tourists were wounded, the attack at the ancient Egyptian Karnak Temple near Luxor was the second in just over a week on a major attraction in Egypt, where tourism is a vital source of income and foreign currency.

There were 604 tourists in the sprawling Nile-side complex at the time.

Police in Luxor said they had averted a “massacre” after security officials grew suspicious when a tax refused a request for the car boot to be searched. One attacker then detonated a suicide vest outside the world famous Karnak temple, wounding a handful of bystanders.

One accomplice was killed and another seriously injured in the ensuing firefight, according to AFP news agency.

A local general warned that a far bloodier outcome had been averted.

“If they had managed to enter the temple, it would have been a massacre,” he told AFP , saying the bags had contained 19 fully loaded rifle magazines.

The foiled attack raises uncomfortable memories of one of the darkest chapters in Egypt’s recent history. In 1997, militants turned guns and machetes on tourists at the site, killing 58 people in the country’s worst ever terrorist assault.

Wednesday’s blast raised the spectre of future attacks on the country’s fragile tourism industry, underscoring the fragility of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s promise to restore economic stability and security to a country that has yet to recover from the turmoil which followed its 2011 uprising.

Tourism is the lifeblood of Luxor and one of the Egyptian government’s main sources of revenue. The authorities have spent the past year trying to win tourists back to its heritage sites and beaches, paying for glossy billboard and bus-side adverts across London and other European capitals.

German tour operator TUI Deutschland said on Wednesday that it had cancelled all excursions to Luxor. But other companies ploughed on unaffected. Mohammed Othman, deputy director of Luxor’s local association of tour operators, confirmed that four groups of foreign tourists had visited the temple after the morning attack, calling it a “wake up call”for the government to tighten security around tourist sites.

The British ambassador in Cairo, John Casson, condemned the attack. “The UK stands with Egypt against this terrorist violence and the poisonous ideology that feeds it. We will defeat it,” he said.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attempted attack, the militants appeared to have been attempting a complex operation bearing the hallmarks of Egypt’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) loyalists, Sinai Province.

The jihadist group has been locked in battle with the army in a region running along the border with Israel and Gaza. It has claimed responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of security personnel in the area and beheaded several local residents on charges of spying.

In February 2014, the militants bombed a tourist bus in the nearby resort town of Taba, killing four people. The group has failed to mount successful attacks on the Egyptian mainland over the past year, but observers say the group pursued a significant escalation in its attacking strategy on Tuesday night, hitting an airbase housing an international peacekeeping force in North Sinai.

Wednesday’s attack was the second this month by suspected Islamist militants near a major tourist attraction. On June 3, gunmen on a speeding motorcycle opened fire outside the famed Giza Pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo, killing two police officers.

• Sharm el-Sheikh hotels empty as tourists fear violence

“Even if tourists themselves aren’t the targets, as they seemed not to be last week near the pyramids, such events are likely to worry the international community at a time that tourists are starting to return to places like Cairo and Luxor,” said Zack Gold, Visiting Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Egypt’s antiquities minister issued orders on Wednesday to intensify security at antiquities sites across the country in co-ordination with the Interior Ministry.

More than 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2010, but footfall figures dived the following year after a mass uprising unseated longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. In 2013, the figure shrank to just 9.5 million, after the authorities led a military coup and implemented a three month-long night-time curfew.

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Filed Under: Egypt, Featured Tagged With: Luxor


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Comments

  1. ecosse13 says

    Jun 10, 2015 at 5:58 pm

    Good grief these Chistians and Copts will stop at nothing to defame islam……………(sarc off)

    • Huck Folder says

      Jun 10, 2015 at 9:42 pm

      “Islamic supremacists hate pagan antiquities. They are the remnants of jahiliyya, the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.”

      LOL!

      Anyone who has studied the science, engineering and intricacies of the pyramids knows that they are the antithesis of ignorance. It’s not enough that they are huge, and we are still theorizing HOW they were constructed, they have this incredible inner structure which would have required exceptional architects.

      A little younger, only about 2100 years old, is The Antikythera Mechanism, the world’s first analog computer, and at a similar age is the astrolabe, developed, but not invented by, moslems.

      • Jack says

        Jun 11, 2015 at 2:54 pm

        You’re wrong Huck, Islamists are great inventers, the Suicide Vest was perhaps their greatest invention.

      • Jack says

        Jun 11, 2015 at 3:01 pm

        Make that inventors instead of inventers.

      • sinantara says

        Jun 11, 2015 at 11:18 pm

        in 1985 Islamic militants tried to blow up the Borobudur T

      • sinantara says

        Jun 11, 2015 at 11:51 pm

        In 1985 militants tried to blow up the Borobudur. But they were not yet that experienced and most of the bombs placed in the stupa’s didn’t go off. In the Borobudur museum some shattered stones are displayed labelled as results of “cultural damage”. Of course one should not treat on the sensitivities of Muslims. Meanwhile, members of the same group were travelling to Bali with some carloads of explosives but they blew themselves up, maybe because the roads were rather bad in the eighties. A second try also failed but the would be bomber had brought his explosives in the luggage compartiment of a public bus so collateral damage was great.

        Better organized, trained and equipped terrorists succeeded to kill about 200 mostly Australian tourists in Bali. One of the brains when asked about what he thought about Muslims who were among those killed and maimed answered that if they were Muslims they should not be there in the first place, but if they were really innocent, if only they would be ‘ikhlas’ (accepting) they could be counted as martyrs too.

        When I read this comment what I thought was, who the hell does this guy thinks he is? Why does he thinks God has given him a mandate to decide who will deserve to live of die? What kind of teachings can instill such a monstrous arrogance in a man?

  2. cs says

    Jun 10, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    I have been studying ancient Egypt, and loved to go there, but now it is impossible, these guys are a pure disease. they don’t belong there at all.

    • Jack says

      Jun 11, 2015 at 2:44 pm

      I visited parts of Egypt and Istanbul, Turkey just before 9/11 In Egypt even back then my small group of maybe ten were escorted by guards and police with machine guns. It’s even worse today.

  3. Angemon says

    Jun 10, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    Even if tourists themselves aren’t the targets

    Doesn’t really matter whether if you’re the intended target or not if get caught in the blast and/or ripped by shrapnel…

  4. dumbledoresarmy says

    Jun 10, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    I wonder what would happen if infidel tourists started evincing an interest in visiting Egypt ONLY and PRIMARILY in order to visit and view functioning, inhabited Coptic churches and monasteries, both contemporary and historic? To spend time experiencing a spiritual retreat in a monastery or visit a Christian pilgrimage site associated with the Holy Family?

    If groups of *Christian* tourists made it abundantly plain to Al-Sisi and company that they were going to visit with Copts, regularly and often?

    Coptic Christian art – both the historic stuff and the contemporary stuff – is gorgeous.

    Their music, their liturgy, is lovely.

    I’m sure they’d be delighted to host parties of paying pilgrims.

    If one is the sort of person who likes taking risks, why not take a risk with some purpose to it; to express and declare solidarity with a suffering community?

    It would put the Egyptian authorities “on notice” if very large numbers of foreigners were *only* prepared to spend money in Egypt if allowed to spend it whilst visiting the *Copts*!!

    Let Al-Sisi and the other not-quite-so-fanatically-Islamic army blokes discover that it isn’t just ancient ruins but the *living Coptic community* that constitutes a goose that lays the golden tourist egg. See whether the profit motive triumphs over Islamic purity….

    • sinantara says

      Jun 12, 2015 at 12:47 am

      this is exactly one aspect of the debate around what to do with the Borobudur. To Buddhists world wide the Borobudur is like the Kaabah, but the temple is managed as by a state owned company to earn tourist dollars, and a Buddhist bante has to pay to go up the Borobudur like everybody else, expensively when a foreigner. As a compensation the nearby Mendut temple is allowed to be used for worship and a vihara is built nearby. Once a year at of Waicak the Borobudur is exclusively given to the Buddhists for celebration. Till last year when tourists where allowed to crowd the ceremony with their cameras. Now the government is wondering, looking at the money that pilgrims on the hajj, technically a form of tourism too, bring to Saudi Arabia. So suggestions have been made, just give the temple over to the Buddhists, have them manage the site, of course for much money–and arrange a time sharing for optimal income. But this is made impossible by the militants who scream “Budanisasi’, a variance on ‘Kristenisasi’ (Christenization). So the temple’s status is like the Hagia Sophia, state property, tourist attraction, because to allow it to be a place of worship will cause trouble with Islamists. Then there is the story that the Borobudur is actually built by Muslims, actually by Nabi Sulaiman (Salomon) as a gift to queen Balqis (of Sheba) and ended up in Java because the jinni moved it there. Where it was taken over by the Buddhists who adorned it with idols. This story is written down in a book that is read nationwide. It carries a twofold message, one, please don’t blow up the Borobudur, because Nabi Sulaiman (a Muslim in the quran, son of his Muslim father Nabi Daud/Dawud), has built it. Secondly, the heathen could have not built it because they are jahiliyah. The risk, that destroying the idols like Muhammad did with the Kaaba should be the right thing to do, then to make it a Muslim monument? But my point is, to make Coptic churches a tourism attraction will not improve things, but make it more complicated. The Copts were once tolerated because they were once at the bottom of society like the pariah, cleaning garbage etc. Like in some other places, they emancipated themselves and many became rich, forgetting their station. One aspect of the Borobudur issue is its popularity, its status as world heritage, wonder of the world (popular version, but it lost this status because its mismanagement), etc etc. This one of the things Muslims have trouble with, the clear proof that jahiliyah people were not that ignorant and the Islamic civilization is just one among a number of acknowledged civilizations, and even not acclaimed as the greatest. They spend a lot of energy on proving that they actually have invented the world and that other civilizations, particularly the western, would not be there without having learned from Islam. There is an Indonesian proverb, if you’re ugly split the mirror… The west actually should invite persecuted minorities to migrate rather than their persecutors, and keep their persecutors out.

  5. abad says

    Jun 10, 2015 at 8:34 pm

    Sick, twisted, evil barbarians.

  6. R Cole says

    Jun 10, 2015 at 8:36 pm

    The so-called pre-Islamic period of ignorance – that all of the Islamic achievements put together have never been able to surpass!

    How many of Egypt’s yearly visitors go there to see Islamic mosques – built with their Roman arches and domes.

    What has Islam achieved in reality!!

    After all these years they are still fixated on destroying – everything outside of it – but not before borrowing from it and claiming as their own.

    Ironic – that with all Islam’s ancient knowledge gained through the spoils of conquest – it is they who have emerged as the most ignorant of all today.

    ::

    Banyam Buddhas

    The fear they could destroy what they could never have envisioned – guided by Muhammad’s limited vision.

    If Islam was born out of ancient Egypt – likely everyone would be part of that religion – whereas the Islamic mindset is 7th century Arabia – a largely desolate place – with a central stone of worship. Where the Egyptians had temples – for their many gods.

    Islam’s ‘superior’ knowledge includes the benefits of drinking camel’s piss – how to share out the booty after robbing a passing caravan… From the ridiculous to the criminal… Islamic knowledge tells Muslims that the deceased body is unclean after one day [under the Arabian sun] – whereas the Egyptians were embalming bodies – that are still around 5000+ years later.

    It’s a scam!!

    And rather than going on these Muslim hallucinogenic rides – that describe Islamic achievements – we should speak Islam’s limitations and its confinements everyday.

    Extremism

    Muhammad chose to use the sword to spread the faith – that in itself said people were not free to choose. And therein lies the tragedy of Islam.

  7. Baucent says

    Jun 11, 2015 at 3:24 am

    Who in their right mind would want to go on a bus tour in any part of the middle east right now? I suspect that 9.5 million “tourists” in 2013 is mostly Arabs from neighbouring countries. They won’t reveal the figures of “Western” tourists which have probably plummeted in the last couple of years.

    • Lia Wissing says

      Jun 11, 2015 at 6:02 am

      The problem with islam is that, for centuries, it has only bought & used Western things (wrist watches, TVs, cell ‘phones, and especially armaments) and done no R & D, or improved itself in any way. All this buying has made them totally dependent on the West (except for oil, which will run out sometime) and then they will have nothing again.

      • TheBuffster says

        Jun 11, 2015 at 11:01 am

        Lia, the thing about the oil… even if the oil runs out or people stop buying it, many of the Arabs who have gotten rich from oil have undoubtedly gotten even wealthier by taking a portion of their oil money dividends and investing it in other enterprises around the world. Those that benefit from those investments will probably continue ti be rich.

  8. Matthieu Baudin says

    Jun 11, 2015 at 8:45 am

    Islam is a year zero cult, it loathes and demeans pre Islamic society. In its rampant, undiluted, totalitarian form, it seeks to obliterate reference to the histories of peoples who lived before the first Islamic conquests. ISIS and its near relatives have the technological ability to level any column, statue, carving, or shrine that is in their path. Like the Taliban before them they have every intention of purifying the world by destroying our monuments to the past.

  9. Gail Griffin says

    Jun 11, 2015 at 1:22 pm

    Some cosmic spirit hates muslims. Look at the misery they are in world wide. And they are blind to it. Their countries are a mess, the most evil humans are drawn to it, the citizens are fleeing and spinning around with no place to go. To bad for them.

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