Minya terrorist attack exposes clandestine relation between “Daesh and Brotherhood”

Duaa Emam and Aya Izz.

(Sayed Qotob)

The Muslim Brotherhood has always disavowed the Islamic State (IS/Daesh), though the former’s ideas and thoughts drew up the IS course since it emerged. For Daesh, Sayed Qotob’s writings were “constitution.” The group’s murals in the regions it once controlled in Syria and Iraq were huge “quotations” from Qotob’s writings.

Claiming responsibility for the Minya terrorist attack that targeted a bus carrying Coptic Christians on their way back from St Samuel monastery on Friday, November 2, Daesh said that it was avenging the “Sisters.” Many believe it was referring to the “Muslim Brotherhood” women, topped with A’esha, daughter of  Brother’s deputy leader, Khairat Al-Shatter, now in jail.

The Brothers took no heed of Daesh statement and instead accused the state of security failure, deliberately neglecting in utter negligence of the close link between the Brothers’ thoughts and extremist groups, like Daesh.

Beginning of Cooperation

The relation between the Brotherhood and “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” dates back to the time after the 25 January Revolution of 2011, when the latter carried out an armed attack on the borders between Egypt and Palestine, September 2012. Three of the assailants were killed, together with an Israeli soldier. One more Israeli was wounded.

At the beginning of the 2013, “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” issued a video revealing that Ahmed Wageeh, and Bahaa Zaqzouq , who earlier joined the group from the Brotherhood, were killed in the border attack when they blew themselves up in an Israeli patrol.

(Ousted president Mohammed Morsi)

The Brotherhood has repeatedly denied any relation with the group, which several times blew up the gas pipeline to Israel in Sinai, when the Brothers were in power. But after president Mohammed Morsi was ousted, they began to hit the country from inside, targeting police and military personnel, with bombing cars, explosions  or armed attacks.

Former Jihadi leader Nabil Naeem, said that capital used to flow from the Muslim Brotherhood to ” Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” during Morsi’s one year in office.

In a press statement on September 9, 2013, Naeem said there was an agreement concluded between the Brotherhood’s Al-Shatter and “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis”, mediated by Mohammed Al-Zawahri, brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri. The accord, which involved the Palestinian Hamas movement, was part of efforts to reach calm under Morsi.

In November 2014, “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” pledged allegiance to Daesh Leader Abu Baker Al-Bughdadi.

“Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” turned into “Wilayat Sinai”, or the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) – Sinai Province” after the latter advised the group to move its activities to the Valley and the Delta, instead of the desert areas of Sinai.

Joint coordination

On the evening of January 20, 2016, an Egyptian police force was raiding a department in Alharam district, Giza, after being tipped off that Brotherhood members were hiding there planning for attacks against public utilities and vital state facilities.

During the attack, the department was blown off killing three civilians and five policemen, as well as wounding 12 others. Two days later, Daesh and the “Revolutionary Reprisal” group of the Brotherhood, issued two conflicting statements, each claiming responsibility for the house explosion.

Each said that they had managed to lure the police to the site, a matter believed to reflect coordination between them.

Brothers within Daesh

The Muslim Brotherhood used to send messages overseas on the forced disappearance of the group’s young members. For instance, they claimed that Omar, son of fugitive Brother leader, Ibrahim El-Deeb, was detained and that security bodies hid him. Some of them went further, saying the security forces had liquidated Omar when he was visiting his family.

In February 2018, Daesh published a video under “Guardians of Sharia” coinciding with the comprehensive military operation the Egyptian army launched in the Sinai Peninsula, “Sinai 2018”. Omar appeared in the video saying that he was one of the group’s fighters in Sinai. Later he was sent to Cairo to form a “terrorist cell,” or what they call a “security cell.”

(Omar El-Deeb)

Junior El-Deep photos were found at the Brothers’ headquarters in Mokattam.

Omar was not the first to join “holders of the black flags”, as he was preceded by Abdulrahman Al-Gharabli, who took part in the Rab’a and Ennahda sit-ins in 2014, and soon hurried to “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.”

After he received Sharia courses and military training, Al-Gharabli took part in Daesh attacks against the police and military in Sinai.

In August 2016, he appeared in a Daesh video issued under “Flames of the Desert” during an attack on the military, before he was finally killed.

Yehia Sasad Al-Zawwai, also the son of a Brotherhood leader, joined Daesh in 2014, and was accused of forming a terrorist cell in the Delta governorate of Al-Mansoura, as well as of stealing LE500,000 (about 28,000 US dollar).

(Ousted president Mohammed Morsi)

The trio of Daesh, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood

Every now and then the Egyptian Prosecution releases more confessions by the elements of the violent Brotherhood, offering details on the combat training the group’s young members received t the hands of “Qassam Brigades,” Hamas military wing.

“Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” consisted of a mixture of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and Egyptians who once belonged to “Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad” which had adopted several terrorist attacks on foreign tourists in Sinai, the period between 2004 and 2006.

Investigations with the terrorist cell accused of assassinating Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat in June 2015, revealed that young Brotherhood members had had contacts with Hamas through “Line.”

The accused also revealed that some youth found their way to the Gaza Strip through smugglers in the Sinai Peninsula, based on orders from fugitive Brotherhood leaders in Qatar and Turkey.

Break-up between Hamas and Daesh

The close ties between Hamas and the Jihadi group in Sinai were strained, as the Palestinian movement resorted to the Egyptian state to control the borders and ease the siege on Gaza.

In 2016, Daesh destroyed some tunnels used to smuggle goods to Gaza, leading to an economic crisis in the Strip, in addition to threatening Hamas leaders. Daesh  urged Hamas to come to Sinai and join it.

The call followed a broad Hamas campaign against pro-Daesh Salafi Jihadis in Gaza. In 2018, Daesh described Hamas in a video as “renegades” and a follower of Iran. It also attacked the judiciary in Gaza, urging “Mujahedin” to strike hard at the Palestinian security premises in the Strip.

Stages of Brother joining Daesh

Researcher on the affairs of Islamic movements Hesham al-Naggar, said that there is intense competition at present between Daesh and al-Qaeda to lure members of the Muslim Brotherhood to join them.

This was clear in several statements by al-Qaeda, as well as its reaction after Hesham Ashmawi.

In statements to Al-Marjie (The Reference), al- Naggar noted that Daesh included the “Muslim Brotherhood” in statements claiming responsibility for terrorist attacks to suggest it was serving the latter’s targets. It also seeks to convince young Brothers that Daesh is “the most capable” of taking revenge for the Brotherhood and save its youth and women.

It is also trying to attract the attention of Brotherhood financiers, hopefully to attract part of their money, he said.

(Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi)

Social media and smart phone applications are well used to attract young  Brothers to Daesh.

According to al-Nagger, cooperation between Daesh and the Muslim Brotherhood started before the latter’s assumption of power.

This cooperation continued after the Brothers were overthrown from power, in the form, through exchange of information and support, he said.

(Houssam Swilum)

On the Friday incident against Copts, security expert Mej Gen Houssam Swuilum said that the terrorist elements that carried out the attack targeted the World Youth Forum held in Sharm El-Sheikh, under patronage of President Abdul-

After the clandestine relation between Daesh and the Muslim Brotherhood was exposed, and the recent terrorist attack, the state will tighten measures to provide protection to churches and monasteries, especially in Upper Egypt.

(Khalid Al-Zaffarani)

By claiming responsibility for the Minya attack, Daesh sought to deliver a message to the Egyptian security bodies, namely “it is still alive,” Khalid Al-Zaffarani, specialist in the affairs of Islamic movements, told “The Reference”.

He said that Daesh had failed to carry out any terrorist attacks since the beginning of 2018. In Minya, it has just tried to “prove itself,” he said.

Daesh statement carried by its Amaq new agency, was no more than a “media show,” he stressed.