View source for Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya

{{short description|Egyptian Sunni Islamist movement}}
{{other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Jemaah Islamiyah}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Essay-like|date=February 2024}}
{{Update|date=February 2024|reason=The weight of this article favours the pre-2011 situation}}
}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox militant organization
| name             = Islamic Group
| native_name      = {{lang|ar|الجماعة الإسلامية}}
| logo             = Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya.png
| caption          = 
| dates            = 1992–1998 (as an armed group)
| leader           = [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.memri.org/reports/editor-independent-egyptian-al-misriyyoun-daily-sheikh-omar-abd-al-rahman-was-never |title=Editor Of Independent Egyptian 'Al-Misriyyoun' Daily: Sheikh 'Omar 'Abd Al-Rahman Was Never Convicted Of Assassinating Sadat – Or Of Involvement In 1993 World Trade Center Attack |date=23 February 2017 |number=Special Dispatch No.6798 |website=MEMRI}}</ref><br />[[Karam Zuhdi]]<br />[[Ala Mohieddin]]<br />[[Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim]]{{executed}}<br />[[Ahmed Refai Taha]]{{KIA}}
| motives          = 
| headquarters     = [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]]
| area             = [[Egypt]]
| ideology         = [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[Islamism]]<br />[[Islamic extremism]] (formerly)<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10402659.2015.1063371 | doi=10.1080/10402659.2015.1063371 | title=Assessing Islamist Armed Groups' De-Radicalization in Egypt | date=2015 | last1=Drevon | first1=Jérôme | journal=Peace Review | volume=27 | issue=3 | pages=296–303 | s2cid=143418392 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21647259.2016.1156817 | doi=10.1080/21647259.2016.1156817 | title=Peacebuilding through Militant Islamist Disengagement: Conclusions drawn from the case of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in Egypt | date=2016 | last1=Schuck | first1=Christoph | journal=Peacebuilding | volume=4 | issue=3 | pages=282–296 | s2cid=156582728 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><br />[[Salafi jihadism]] (formerly)<ref name="Free_Jihadists_2011" />
| crimes           = 
| attacks          = [[Farag Foda#Assassination|Assassination of Farag Foda]]<br />Hosni Mubarak 1995 assassination attempt<br />[[1995 Rijeka bombing]]<br />[[1996 Cairo shooting]]<br />[[Luxor massacre]]
| size             = 
| revenue          = 
| financing        = 
| allies           = {{flagicon image|Flag of Jihad.svg}} [[Al-Qaeda]] (factions)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hamzawy |first1=Amr |last2=Grebowski |first2=Sarah |title=From Violence to Moderation: Al-Jama'a al-Islamiya and al-Jihad |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Hamzawy-Grebowski-EN.pdf |publisher=Carnegie Endowment |access-date=11 February 2024 |page=13}}</ref><br />{{flagicon image|Flag of Jihad.svg}} [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]]
| opponents        = {{flag|Egypt}}<br />{{flag|Israel}}<br />{{flag|United Kingdom}}<br />{{flag|United States}}
| battles          = [[Terrorism in Egypt|Jama'a Insurgency (1992–1998)]]
}}
{{Islamism sidebar}}
'''{{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|Al-Gamāʻah al-Islāmīyah|italics=no}}''' ({{langx|ar|الجماعة الإسلامية}}, "'''Islamic Group'''") is an Egyptian [[Sunni]] [[Islamist]] movement, and is considered a [[terrorism|terrorist]] organization by the [[United Kingdom]]<ref name="Proscribed">{{cite act |title=Terrorism Act 2000 |title-link=Terrorism Act 2000 |date=2000-07-20 |orig-section=c. 11, sched. 2 |chapter=Proscribed Organisations |reporter=UK Public General Acts |chapter-url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121085241/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-date=2013-01-21 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[European Union]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_340/l_34020051223en00640066.pdf |title=THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, COUNCIL DECISION of 21 December 2005 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924025231/http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_340/l_34020051223en00640066.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> but was removed from the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in May 2022. The group was dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government and replacing it with an [[Islamic republic|Islamic state]]. Following the [[2013 Egyptian coup d'état|coup]] that toppled [[Mohamed Morsi]], the group has committed to peaceful activities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/jama-al-islamiya-rejects-assem-abdel-magued |title=Jama'a al-Islamiya rejects Assem Abdel Magued |work=[[Egypt Independent]] |date=5 December 2013 |access-date=6 December 2013}}</ref>

From 1992 to 1998, {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Gamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} fought an insurgency against the Egyptian government during which at least 796 Egyptian policemen and soldiers, {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} fighters, and civilians including dozens of tourists were killed.<ref>[[Uppsala Conflict Data Program]], Conflict Encyclopedia, The al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya insurgency, Government of Egypt – al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, viewed 2013-05-03, http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=50&regionSelect=10-Middle_East# {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911063455/http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=50&regionSelect=10-Middle_East |date=11 September 2015 }}</ref> During the fighting {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} was given support by the governments of Iran and Sudan, as well as from [[al-Qaeda]].<ref name="autogenerated1">[[Uppsala Conflict Data Program]], Conflict Encyclopedia, The al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya insurgency, viewed 2013-05-03, http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=50&regionSelect=10-Middle_East# {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911063455/http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=50&regionSelect=10-Middle_East |date=11 September 2015 }}</ref> The Egyptian government received support during that time from the United States.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

The group(s) is said to have constituted "the Islamist movement's only genuine mass organizations" in Egypt.<ref name="Kepel.p.129">[[Kepel, Gilles]]. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt; the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 129, 1985, {{ISBN|0520239342}}</ref> While the assassination of the Egyptian president [[Anwar Sadat]] in 1981 is generally thought to have been carried out by another Islamist group, [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], some{{example needed|date=February 2024}} have suggested {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} was responsible for or at least related to the assassination. In 2003, the imprisoned leadership of the group renounced bloodshed, and a series of high-ranking members were released, and the group was allowed to resume semi-legal peaceful activities.<ref name="autogenerated2006" /> Then again some of its members were released in 2011. The imprisoned cleric [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]] was a spiritual leader of the movement, and the group actively campaigned for his release until his death in 2017.<ref name="Free_Jihadists_2011" />

Following the [[Egyptian Revolution of 2011]], the movement formed a political party, the [[Building and Development Party]], which gained 13 seats in the [[2011–12 Egyptian parliamentary election|2011–2012 elections]] to the lower house of the [[Egyptian Parliament]].<ref name="aje1feb">{{cite web |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2012/01/20121248225832718.html |title=Interactive: Full Egypt election results |publisher=[[Al Jazeera English]] |date=1 February 2012 |access-date=9 December 2013}}</ref>

== History ==
=== Origins in universities ===
'''{{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|Al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}}''' began as an umbrella organization for Egyptian [[Militant (word)|militant]] student groups, formed, like the [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], after the leadership of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] renounced violence in the 1970s.<ref name="Kepel.p.129" />

In its early days, the group was primarily active on university campuses, and was mainly composed of university students. Originally they were a minority in the Egyptian student movement which was dominated by leftist [[Nasserist]]s and [[Marxist]]s. The leftists were strongly critical of the new [[Sadat era#Early years|Sadat government]], and urged Egypt to fight a war of revenge against Israel, while President Sadat wanted to wait and rebuild the military.<ref name="Kepel.p.132">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 132</ref> However, with some "discrete, tactical collaboration" with the government,<ref name="Kepel.p.133">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 133</ref> who sought a "useful counterweight" to its leftist opponents,<ref name="Kepel.p.134">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 134</ref> the group(s) began to grow in influence in 1973.

The Jama'at spread quite rapidly on campuses and won up to one-third of all student union elections. These victories provided a platform from which the associations campaigned for Islamic dress, the veiling of women, and the [[Sex segregation|segregation]] of classes by gender. [[Secular]] university administrators opposed these goals.<ref name="Metz" />
By March 1976, they were "dominant force"<ref name="Kepel.p.141">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 141</ref> in the student movement and by 1977 "they were in complete control of the universities and had driven the left organizations underground."<ref name="Kepel.p.129" />

=== Expansion ===
Having once been favored by the Egyptian government of [[Anwar Sadat]] they now threatened it, passionately opposing what they believed was a "shameful peace with the Jews," aka the [[Camp David Accords]] with Israel.<ref name="Kepel.p.149" /> By 1979, they began to be harassed by the government but their numbers grew steadily.<ref name="Kepel.p.129" /><ref name="Kepel.p.149">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'' p. 149</ref> In 1979, Sadat sought to diminish the influence of the associations through a law that transferred most of the authority of the student unions to professors and administrators. During the 1980s, however, Islamists gradually penetrated college faculties. At [[Assiut University]], which was the scene of some of the most intense clashes between Islamists and their opponents (including security forces, [[secularist]]s, and [[Copts]]), the president and other top administrators – who were Islamists – supported Jama'at demands to end mixed-sex classes and to reduce total female enrollment.<ref name="Metz">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20111024192639/http://www.higginsctc.org/terrorism/Egypt%20-%20Islamic%20Political%20Movements.htm Islamic Political Movements]}}. from [[Helen Chapin Metz]], ed. ''Egypt: A Country Study''. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1990.</ref> In other universities Jama'at also forbade the mixing of genders, films, concerts, and dances, and enforced their bans with clubs and iron bars.<ref name="Kepel.p.151">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 151</ref> From the universities the groups reached out to make new recruits, preaching in poor neighbourhoods of cities, and to rural areas.<ref name="Kepel.p.149" /> and after a crackdown against them, inmates of Egyptian jails.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

In April 1981, the group became involved in what was probably started as a clan feud/vendetta about livestock or property lines between [[Copts|Coptic]] and Muslim Egyptians in the vicinity of [[Minya, Egypt]]. The group believed in the position of tributary or [[dhimmi]] for Christians in Egypt and opposed any signs of Coptic "arrogance" (istikbar), such as Christian cultural identity and opposition to an Islamic state. The group distributed a leaflet accusing Egypt's one Christian provincial governor (appointed by the government) of providing automatic weapons to Christians to attack Muslims, and the Sadat administration of following orders given by the United States.<ref name="Kepel.p.156">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', pp. 156–66</ref>

=== Crackdown ===
In June 1981, a brutal sectarian Muslim-Copt fight broke out in the poor [[al-Zawaiyya Al Hamra]] district of [[Cairo]]. Over three days of fighting, 17 people were killed, 112 injured, and 171 public and private buildings were damaged.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} "Men and women were slaughtered; babies thrown from windows, their bodies crushed on the pavement below; there was looting, killing and arson."<ref name="Kepel.p.166">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', p. 166</ref> Islamic Group(s) were accused of participating in the incident and in September 1981, one month before the assassination of Sadat, the '''{{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}}''' were dissolved by the state (although they had never been legally registered in the first place), their infrastructure was destroyed and their leaders arrested.<ref name="Kepel.p.129" />

=== Assassination of president Anwar Sadat ===
{{main|Assassination of Anwar Sadat}}
In 1980, the [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]] under the leadership of [[Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj]], formed a coalition with the Jama'at under the leadership of [[Karam Zuhdi]], with both agreeing to follow the guidance of Sheikh [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]].  One of Faraj's groups was responsible for the [[assassination of President Anwar Sadat]] in 1981.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Al-Zayyat |first1=Montasser |title=The Road to Al-Qaeda |url=https://archive.org/details/roadtoalqaedasto00alza |url-access=limited |date=2004 |publisher=Pluto Press |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/roadtoalqaedasto00alza/page/n41 21]|isbn=9780745321752 }}</ref> Members in Asyut launched a rapidly suppressed [[1981 Asyut Islamist Uprising|uprising]] two days after the assassination. Following the assassination, [[Karam Zuhdi]] expressed regret for conspiring with [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]] in the assassination, according to the [[Council on Foreign Relations]]. Zuhdi was among the 900 militants who were set free in April 2006 by the Egyptian government.<ref name="autogenerated2006">{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/05/zawahiri.tape/index.html |title=Al-Zawahiri: Egyptian militant group joins al Qaeda |publisher=CNN |date=5 August 2006 |access-date=12 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104162903/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/05/zawahiri.tape/index.html |archive-date=4 November 2012<!--DASHBot--> |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Omar Abdel-Rahman ===
The cleric [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]] was the spiritual leader of the movement. He was accused of participating in the [[World Trade Center 1993 bombings]] conspiracy, and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his espousal of a subsequent conspiracy to [[New York City landmark bomb plot|bomb New York City landmarks]], including the [[United Nations]] and [[FBI]] offices. The Islamic Group had publicly threatened to retaliate against the United States if Rahman was not released from prison. However, the group later renounced violence and their leaders and members were released from prison in Egypt.<ref name="Free_Jihadists_2011">{{cite news |last1=Perry |first1=Tom |title=In free Egypt, Jihad leader says time for gun is over |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-islamist-militancy/in-free-egypt-jihad-leader-says-time-for-gun-is-over-idUSTRE72H62820110318 |work=Reuters |date=18 March 2011}}</ref> Abdel-Rahman died on 18 February 2017.

=== 1990s terrorism campaign ===
While the Islamic group had originally been an amorphous movement of local groups centered in [[mosque]]s without offices or membership roll, by the late 1980s it became more organized and "even adopted an official logo: an upright sword standing on an open Qur'an with an orange sun rising in the background," encircled by the [[Qur'an]]ic verse that Abdel Rahman had quoted at his trials while trying to explain his interpretation of [[jihad]] to the judges:
<blockquote>وَقَاتِلُوهُمْ حَتَّى لاَ تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ وَيَكُونَ الدِّينُ لِلّهِ فَإِنِ انتَهَواْ فَلاَ عُدْوَانَ إِلاَّ عَلَى الظَّالِمِينَ
<br />
Fight them on until there is no more Tumult, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease, Let there be no hostility except to those who practise oppression.</blockquote>

This became the official motto of the group.<ref>Murphy, Caryle. ''Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: the Egyptian Experience''  by Caryle Murphy, (2002), p. 65</ref>

The 1990s saw {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} engage in an extended campaign of violence, from the murders and attempted murders of prominent writers and intellectuals, to the repeated targeting of tourists and foreigners. Serious damage was done to the largest sector of Egypt's economy – tourism<ref>"Solidly ahead of oil, Suez Canal revenues, and remittances, tourism is Egypt's main hard currency earner at $6.5 billion per year." (in 2005) [https://web.archive.org/web/20051024175638/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/741/eg1.htm ... concerns over tourism's future]. Retrieved 27 September 2007.</ref> – and in turn to the government, but it also devastated the livelihoods of many of the people on whom the group depends for support.<ref>Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002</ref>

Victims of campaign against the Egyptian state from 1992 to 1997 totaled more than 1200<ref>Wright, ''Looming Towers'', (2006), p. 258</ref> and included the head of the counter-terrorism police (Major General Raouf Khayrat), a speaker of parliament ([[Rifaat al-Mahgoub]]), dozens of European tourists and Egyptian bystanders, and over 100 Egyptian police.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/timeline_egypt.html |title=Timeline of modern Egypt |publisher=Gemsofislamism.tripod.com |access-date=2011-02-12}}</ref>

The 1991 killing of the group's leader, Ala Mohieddin, presumably by security forces, led Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya to murder Egypt's speaker of parliament in retaliation. In June 1995, working together with [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], the group staged a carefully planned [[attempt on the life of President Mubarak]], led by [[Mustafa Hamza]], a senior Egyptian member of the [[Al-Qaeda]] and commander of the military branch of the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. Mubarak escaped unharmed and retaliated with a massive and ruthless crackdown on GI members and their families in Egypt.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Towers'', (2006), po. 213–15</ref>

[[Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim]] was arrested in Croatia in 1995.<ref name="mayer">[[Jane Mayer|Mayer, Jane]], ''[[The Dark Side (book)|The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals]]'', 2008. p. 113</ref>

==== Failed nonviolence initiative ====
By 1997, the movement had become paralyzed. 20,000 Islamists were in custody in Egypt and thousands more had been killed by the security forces. In July of that year, Islamist lawyer Montassir al-Zayyat brokered a deal between the {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} and the Egyptian government, called the Nonviolence Initiative, whereby the movement formally renounced violence. The next year the government released 2,000 members of the Islamic Group. After the initiative was declared Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman also gave his approval from his prison cell in the United States, though he later withdrew it.

The initiative divided the Islamic Group between members in Egypt who supported it and those in exile who wanted the attacks to continue. Leading the opposition was EIJ leader [[Ayman Zawahiri]] who termed it "surrender" in angry letters to the London newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Towers'', (2006), po. 255–56</ref>

==== Temple of Hatshepsut attack ====
{{main|November 1997 Luxor massacre}}

Zawahiri enlisted [[Ahmed Refai Taha]], both exiles in Afghanistan with him, to sabotage the initiative with a massive terrorism attack that would provoke the government into repression.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Towers'', (2006), pp. 256–57</ref> So on 17 November 1997 {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} killing campaign climaxed with the attack at the Temple of [[Hatshepsut]] ([[Deir el-Bahri]]) in [[Luxor]], in which a band of six men dressed in police uniforms machine-gunned and hacked to death with knives 58 foreign tourists and four [[Egyptians]]. "The killing went on for 45 minutes, until the floors streamed with blood. The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons." Altogether 71 people were killed. The attack stunned Egyptian society, devastated the tourist industry for a number of years, and consequently sapped a large segment of popular support for violent Islamism in Egypt.

The revulsion of Egyptians and rejection of jihadi terrorism was so complete, the attack's supporters backpedaled. The day after the attack, Refai Taha claimed the attackers intended only to take the tourists hostage, despite the evidence of the systematic nature of the slaughter. Others denied Islamist involvement completely. Sheikh [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]] blamed Israelis for the killings, and Zawahiri maintaining the Egyptian police had done it.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Towers'', (2006), pp. 257–58</ref>

When Refai Taha signed the al-Qaeda fatwa "International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders" to kill Crusaders and Jews on behalf of the Islamic Group, he was "forced to withdraw his name" from the fatwa, explaining to fellow members ... than he had "only been asked over the telephone to join in a statement of support for the Iraqi people."<ref>Zayyat, Nontassir, ''The Road to al-Qaeda: the story of bin Laden's right-hand Man,'' Pluto Press, (2004), p. 89</ref>

==== Attacks ====
Major attacks by {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}}:
*8 June 1992 – assassination of [[Farag Foda]].
*26 June 1995 – attempt to [[assassinate]] Egyptian President [[Hosni Mubarak]] in [[Addis Ababa]], [[Ethiopia]].
*20 October 1995 – [[Rijeka terror attack|Car bomb attack]] on police station in [[Rijeka]], [[Croatia]].
*28 April 1996 – a [[1996 Cairo shooting|mass shooting]] outside the Europa Hotel, [[Cairo]], killing 17 [[Greeks|Greek]] tourists mistaken for Israelis.<ref>{{cite web |author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,USCIS,,EGY,3df09ec64,0.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223104547/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher%2CUSCIS%2C%2CEGY%2C3df09ec64%2C0.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 December 2011 |title=Information on the Islamic Fundamentalist group al-Gama'a al-Islamiya |publisher=UNHCR |access-date=12 February 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://tech.mit.edu/V116/N19/cairo.19w.html |title=The Washington Post, 19 April 1996 |publisher=MIT |date=19 April 1996 |access-date=12 February 2011 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402221137/http://tech.mit.edu/V116/N19/cairo.19w.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.american.edu/TED/hpages/terror/islamic.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030510170237/http://www.american.edu/ted/hpages/terror/islamic.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 May 2003 |title=Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group, IG) Attacks |publisher=American.edu |access-date=12 February 2011}}</ref>
*17 November 1997 – [[November 1997 Luxor massacre|Luxor massacre]] at [[Deir el-Bahri]], [[Luxor]], Egypt. 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians killed.

It was also responsible for a spate of tourist shootings (trains and cruise ships sprayed with bullets) in middle and upper Egypt during the early 1990s. As a result of those attacks, cruise ships ceased sailing between Cairo and Luxor.

=== Renouncing terrorism ===
[[File:Members of al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya.jpg|thumb|Members of al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya]]
After spending more than two decades in prison and after intense debates and discussions with [[Al-Azhar]] scholars, most of the leaders of {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} have written several books renouncing their ideology of violence and some of them went as far as calling ex-Egyptian president [[Anwar Sadat]], whom they assassinated, a martyr.

{{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} renounced bloodshed in 2003,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=21972 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070419125649/http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=21972 |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 April 2007 |title=Egypt frees 900 Islamist militants |publisher=English.aljazeera.net |date=2011-02-06 |access-date=2011-02-12}}</ref> and in September 2003 Egypt freed more than 1,000 members, citing what Interior Minister [[Habib el-Adli]] called the group's stated "commitment to rejecting violence."<ref name="autogenerated2006" />

Harsh repressive measures by the Egyptian government and the unpopularity of the killing of foreign tourists have reduced the group's profile in recent years but the movement retains popular support among Egyptian Islamists who disapprove of the secular nature of Egypt's society and peace treaty with Israel.

In April 2006, the Egyptian government released approximately 1,200 members from prison, including a founder, Nageh Ibrahim.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP130106 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927034104/http://memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP130106 |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 September 2006 |title=Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya vs. Al-Qaeda |publisher=Memri |access-date=12 February 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2006/04/12/22789.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501163522/http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2006/04/12/22789.htm|url-status=dead|title=News from Al-Arabiya|archive-date=1 May 2006}}</ref>

Reportedly, there have been "only two instances where members showed signs of returning to their former violent ways, and in both cases they were betrayed by informants within their own group."<ref>lawyer Montasser al-Zayyat in [https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_wright?currentPage=all The Rebellion Within, An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. by Lawrence Wright, 2 June 2008]</ref>

=== 2011 revolution ===
Following the 2011 Revolution, {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} established a political party, the [[Building and Development Party]]. In August 2011, it presented 6,700 proxies (signatures) to the Egyptian political parties' committee on behalf of its party. In a statement the Jama'at said that any legislation drafted in Egypt after the revolution must refer to the [[sharia]] of God, "who blessed us with this revolution. We believe that the suffering we endured during the past years was due to neglecting religion and putting those who don't fear [God] in power." It also stated that "Islam can contain everyone and respects the freedom of followers of other religions to refer to their own sharia in private affairs."<ref name="dne1sept">{{cite news |title=Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya calls for unity, says minority rights guaranteed |url=http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2011/09/01/al-gamaa-al-islamiya-calls-for-unity-says-minority-rights-guaranteed/ |agency=Daily News Egypt |date=1 September 2011 |access-date=9 December 2013}}</ref>

The Building and Development Party contested the [[2011–12 Egyptian parliamentary election|2011–2012 elections]] to the [[People's Assembly of Egypt|People's Council]], the lower house of the Egyptian parliament, as part of the Islamic Alliance which was led by the [[salafi]] [[Al-Nour Party]]. It gained 13 seats: 12 in [[Upper Egypt]] and one in [[Suez]].<ref name="aje1feb" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/33/103/26940/Elections-/Electoral-Alliances/Islamist-Bloc-AlNour.aspx |title=Islamist Bloc (Al-Nour) – Electoral Alliances – Elections 2011 |publisher=Ahram Online |date=19 November 2011 |access-date=9 December 2013}}</ref>

In June 2013, Egypt's president [[Mohammed Morsi]] appointed Adel el-Khayat, a member of the group, as governor of [[Luxor]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://theprovince.com/news/Egypts+president+appoints+governors+including+from+Muslim/8533125/story.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130619230323/http://www.theprovince.com/news/Egypts+president+appoints+governors+including+from+Muslim/8533125/story.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 June 2013 |title=Egypt's president appoints 17 new governors, including 8 from his Muslim Brotherhood |date=17 June 2013 |access-date=17 June 2013}}</ref> el-Khayat resigned within a week of his appointment due to public unrest related to the group's commission of the 1997 massacre in Luxor.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/20136231395844915.html |title=Controversial new Luxor governor quits |publisher=Al Jazeera English |date=23 June 2013 |access-date=6 December 2013}}</ref>

== Beliefs ==
One scholar studying the group, [[Gilles Kepel]], found that the group repeatedly used the name of radical Islamist theorist [[Sayyid Qutb]], and often quoted from his manifesto, ''[[Ma'alim fi al-Tariq]]'' (Milestones), in their leaflets and newsletters. They emphasized the right to legislate belongs to God alone; and that divine unity ([[tawhid]]) in Islam signifies liberation (tahrir) from all that is corrupt in thought – including the liberation of all that is inherited or conventional, like customs and traditions.<ref name="Kepel.p.155">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', pp. 155–56</ref>

There was a scant supply of any writing by the group's members, but some issues leading writer(s) of the Jama'at thought worth mentioning included:
* Youth must be taught that Islam was ''nizam kamil wa shamil'' (a complete and perfect system) and must regulate government and war, the judicial system and the economy.
* Egypt's disastrous [[Six-Day War|1967 War]] was the result of following [[Arab nationalism]] rather than Islam.
* Signs of the growth of an Islamic movement were the wearing of the veil by women and the white gallabieh and untrimmed beard by men, early marriage, and attendance at public prayers on the major Muslim festivals, [[Eid al-Fitr]] and [[Eid al-adha]].<ref name="Kepel.p.154">Kepel, Gilles. ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt: the Prophet and Pharaoh'', pp. 153–54</ref>

While secularist social analyses of Egypt's socioeconomic problems maintained that poverty was caused by overpopulation or high defense expenditures, {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} saw the cause in the populace's spiritual failures – laxness, secularism, and corruption. The solution was a return to the simplicity, hard work, and self-reliance of earlier Muslim life.<ref name="Metz" />

== Members allegedly allying with al-Qaeda ==
Deputy leader of al-Qaeda [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] announced a new alliance with a faction of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. In a video released on the internet on 5 August 2006.<ref name="autogenerated2006" /> Zawahiri said "We bring good tidings to the Muslim nation about a big faction of the knights of{{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} uniting with Al-Qaeda," and the move aimed to help "rally the Muslim nation's capabilities in a unified rank in the face of the most severe crusader campaign against Islam in its history." An {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} leader, [[Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim|Muhammad al-Hukaymah]], appeared in the video and confirmed the unity move.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2006/Aug-07/72236-al-qaeda-wins-converts-from-egyptian-group.ashx |title=Al-Qaeda wins converts from Egyptian group |journal=The Daily Star |date=7 August 2006 |access-date=14 May 2014}}</ref> However, Hukaymah acknowledged that other {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} members had "backslid" from the militant course he was keeping to, and some {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} representatives also denied that they were joining forces with the international Al-Qaeda network.<ref>{{cite web |author=Vinsinfo |url=http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=14657 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927210535/http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=14657 |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 September 2007 |title=Egyptian Group Denies Al-Qa'ida Ties |publisher=The Media Line |access-date=12 February 2011}}</ref> Sheikh Abdel Akhar Hammad, a former {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} leader, told Al-Jazeera: "If [some] brothers have joined, then this is their own personal view and I don't think that most {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} members share that same opinion."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2006/08/200849153416370128.html |title=Egyptian group denies al-Qaeda tie-up |publisher=Al Jazeera English |date=6 August 2006 |access-date=14 May 2014}}</ref>

== Foreign relations ==
;Designation as a terrorist organization
Countries and organizations below have officially listed {{Transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah|italics=no}} as a terrorist organization.<ref>{{cite web |title=Al-Gama'at Al-Islamiyya (IG) |url=http://www.start.umd.edu/baad/database/al-gamaat-al-islamiyya-ig-2012 |website=Big, Allied and Dangerous (BAAD) |publisher=University of Maryland |access-date=11 October 2018}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
|Country
|Date
|References
|-
|United Kingdom
|29 March 2001
|<ref name="Proscribed" />
|-
|Canada
|23 July 2002
|<ref name="canada-list">{{cite web|url=https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx|title=Currently listed entities|work=Public Safety Canada|date=21 December 2018|publisher=Government of Canada|access-date=13 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728171301/https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx|archive-date=28 July 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
|Israel
|2003
|<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.justice.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/9C960928-70AB-428A-BCCC-2E6091F2BDE3/40880/impa_terror_eng_17012013.doc |format=[[Direct download link|DDL]] |title=impa_terror_eng_17012013 |date=2014-08-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810135338/http://www.justice.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/9C960928-70AB-428A-BCCC-2E6091F2BDE3/40880/impa_terror_eng_17012013.doc |access-date=2020-05-30 |archive-date=10 August 2014}}</ref>
|-
|Russia
|2006
|<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5223458.stm |title=BBC NEWS – Europe – Russia names 'terrorist' groups |access-date=10 February 2015}}</ref>
|}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Egypt|Islam}}
* [[Terrorism in Egypt]]
* [[List of designated terrorist organizations]]

== References ==
{{reflist|33em}}

== External links ==
*[http://gurobabersatu.blogspot.com/ Al-Ghuroba] (Followers of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah)
*{{cite web |url=http://cns.miis.edu/research/wtc01/algamaa.htm |title=Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya |access-date=25 February 2004 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20010927232926/http://cns.miis.edu/research/wtc01/algamaa.htm |archive-date=27 September 2001 |url-status=dead}} (Center for Nonproliferation Studies, [[Monterey Institute of International Studies]])
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050422013736/http://salamworldwide.com/ourworld12th.html Article about Islamist resistance in Egypt]
*[http://www.economist.com/printedition/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=836058 Article in the ''Economist'' about more recent developments]
*[http://www.egyig.com/ al-Gama'a al Islam] home page
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071227020832/http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/12/09/42720.html Egypt's Jihad Group leader wants end to violence]
*[https://www.theguardian.com/egypt/story/0,,2135869,00.html Violence won't work: how author of 'jihadists' bible' stirred up a storm]
*[https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_wright The Rebellion Within] a ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' article about terrorists renouncing violence, with significant attention paid to the Islamic Group

{{Militant Islamism in the Middle East}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jama'a al-Islamiyya, Al-}}
[[Category:Jihadist groups in Egypt]]
[[Category:Anti-Americanism]]
[[Category:Anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by Canada]]
[[Category:Organisations designated as terrorist by the European Union]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by Israel]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by Russia]]
[[Category:Qutbist organisations]]
[[Category:Salafi Jihadist groups]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by the United Arab Emirates]]
[[Category:Organisations designated as terrorist by the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by the United States]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Africa designated as terrorist]]
[[Category:Organisations of the Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014)]]