Associated Press
CAIRO: Egypt s once largest militant group has appealed to the Al-Qaeda terror network to renounce its violent ideology and rally behind the Egyptian Islamic militants conversion to a peaceful struggle.
According to a statement posted on the Egyptian group s Web Site, Nageh Ibrahim, a leader and one of the founders of the Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya appealed to Al-Qaeda fighters everywhere to back his group s peaceful initiative from 10 years ago.
I m … appealing to … brothers in Al-Qaeda organization everywhere, Ibrahim s statement said. I m appealing to you to stop and review your stances, to put your effort, the Jihad (holy war) … in the right place and time, away from infighting among Muslims … away from killing civilians, both Muslims and non Muslims.
My beloved brothers in Al-Qaeda: Islamic movements revising ideas and views in religion and life is not a sign of weakness but a proof of strength and vitality, he added.
The initiative of Ibrahim s group was adopted recently also by Al-Jihad, or Holy War group, an extremist network that was once headed by Ayman Al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden s lieutenant. Ibrahim was released late 2005 after spending 25 years in an Egyptian prison.
Al-Jihad and the Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya group were both accused of participating in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian physician, jailed for his involvement in the murder, was released in 1984. He left Egypt and helped form Al-Qaeda with bin Laden in the late 1990s.
Last year, Al-Zawahri claimed in a videotape statement that Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya had joined Al-Qaeda – the first time Al-Qaeda announced a branch in Egypt, the Arab world s most populous nation. But the Egyptian group promptly denied it. Neither Al-Jihad or Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya have been involved in attacks in Egypt since the 1990s.
About 135 lesser Al-Jihad members who spent over a decade in Egyptian prisons have been released over the past two weeks, after signing statements renouncing violence.
Despite long opposing a reconsideration of radical views, Al-Jihad s top ideologue, Sayed Imam Abdul-Aziz El-Sherif started a review of Al-Jihad s ideology and concluded it should unequivocally renounce violence.
El-Sherif, 57, left Egypt in 1986 to go to Afghanistan and wound up in Yemen where he was arrested in 2001 and handed back in 2004 to Egypt to serve a life sentence.
Egypt has never disclosed the number of militants it holds in prison. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Al-Jihad and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya members are still believed to be jailed here, along with smaller groups militants.
