The Paris Attacks

Context and Egyptian Responses

The Center for Arab-West Understanding is offering the families and friends of the victims and all French people its deepest condolences. The aim of terrorists is to create division and fear. Some have fallen in that trap by attacking Muslim communities in different countries. The Paris attack needs responses but not ones that target people who were not involved.

Prior to the Paris attacks, on November 5, interns of CAWU met  with Dr. Muhammad Salah a presenter at Huda TV- an Islamist satellite station- to speak about “Inside the Jihadi Mind: Understanding Ideology and Propaganda,” of the Centre on Religion & Geopolitics of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Dr. Salah opposes Jihadi thought and largely agrees with this report. An ideology must be countered by a counter ideology, he argued, and thus he advocates dialogue with radicals in an effort to draw them out of their misguided and evil ideologies. A day later, intern Felix Wellisch spoke with Prof. Abdallah Schleifer, who disagrees about the role of dialogue in deflecting these people from their radical ideologies. Dr. Salah had been traveling and after returning, on November 23, called us to offer condolences and commented that methods of de-escalation are to be preferred over bombing, which in his view will only increase these Jihadis’ determination to create more victims. On Thursday November 13, Mr. Aymad Fayed, former media advisor to al-Qaida, visited our office on the invitation of researcher Khaled Hassan. Fayed left al-Qaida over 15 years ago, but gave a highly valuable insight into radical thought processes, which abound with conspiracy theories. 

It is important to listen to these voices, because only if one understands the radical mindset can one find ways of addressing this. The meetings were recorded and we are planning to put the transcripts online.

We asked our researcher Khaled H. Zakaria to write about Egyptian responses to the attacks in Paris. He describes how many Egyptian commentators compare the bomb attack on the Russian airline to the attack in Paris, asking for sympathy and support for Egypt with its battered economy. Egypt needs tourism.

Our Center for Arab-West Understanding organized a visit on November 21 to Coptic heritage locations in the Beni Suef region, as a sign of solidarity with Egypt. 32 people joined, representing 11 different nationalities. Channel 1 of Egyptian TV participated and filmed a very successful and peaceful visit. Participants interviewed made clear they had no fear of being in Egypt and traveling around the country. We all wish to see tourists coming to Egypt, since this will help Egypt’s economy and support many ordinary Egyptians in their livelihood.

Cornelis Hulsman,

Deputy Chairman Center for Arab-West Understanding