Two Attacks in Cairo Target Tourists

**kadafi** · 05-01-2005

Egyptian police seen in the scene of the first bomb near the Egyptian Museum.

Additional Reporting by Hamdy Al-Husseini, IOL Staff

CAIRO, April 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Cairo Saturday, April 30, was the scene of a bombing attack and a shootout apparently targeting tourists, killing three persons and wounding seven others, including four foreigners.

The first bombing took place near the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo at Gen. Abdul Munem Riyadh Square, killing one man and injuring seven others including four tourists.

Health Minister Dr. Mohammad Awad Taggudin told state-run Nile News channel that the injured are three Egyptians, two Israelis, a Swede and an Italian.

He added injured Egyptians were rushed to Al-Munira public hospital, where the foreigners were taken to Kasr El-Eini hospital. Three foreigners were slightly wounded and the fourth was in serious condition.

On the kind of bomb used in the attack, the minister said that the Interior Ministry will issue later in the day a statement on the grisly incident.

Two Versions

Security sources initially said that someone may have thrown a bomb from a nearby bridge, directly hitting a bystander and other tourists.

They later said that a man called Ibrahim Yousri blew himself up at the back of the museum, Reuters said.

The dead man’s body was lying on the pavement near a bridge across the Nile and his head was in pieces, panicked witnesses told IOL.

IOL correspondent on the scene said that a powerful explosion was heard in Abdul Munem Riyadh Square and ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast.

He added the place has not been crowded as usual but regularly frequented by tourists, noting that a police cordon was thrown up around the site and traffic movement has come to a standstill.

The Egyptian Museum has the world’s largest collection of Egyptian antiquities from the time of the Pharaohs and is a popular tourist destination. But the bomb exploded at the back of the museum, some distance from the entrance.

Second Attack

In the district of Al-Saida Eisha in Old Cairo, Egyptian police further said that they killed two women after they opened fire on a tourist bus.

Earlier police reports said two people had died in what was thought to be an explosion near the bus, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

There were no immediate reports on the identities of the women.

Al-Jazeera television previously reported that two explosives-laden young women attempted to get on a tourist bus and blew themselves up when they were unable to.

On April 7, a man killed himself and three tourists when the bomb he was carrying exploded among a group of tourists in the historical Al-Azhar district downtown Cairo, killing two French citizens, a US national and the bomber.

Egyptian authorities have arrested at least nine people in connection with the attack on the Khan El-Khalili market.

That bombing was the first against foreign targets in Cairo in more than seven years. Afterwards, authorities beefed up security around the country's main tourists attractions and embassies urged their citizens to keep a low profile.

Last October, at least 34 people, including several Israeli tourists, were killed in triple bomb attacks on the Hilton hotel Taba and two nearby resorts in the Sinai Peninsula. More than 10 were wounded.

Revenge

Sources told Al-Jazeera that the museum’s incident may have come to avenge the death in an Egyptian custody of the cousin of an Egyptian wanted in connection with Khan El-Khalili bombing.

Mohammad Suleiman Youssef, 40, was the cousin of Ashraf Said Youssef, identified by the Interior Ministry as the fugitive who recruited the bomber who blew himself up in the Islamic district.

A police source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that police sent the man’s body back to his village north of Cairo for burial.

The man was a primary school teacher in the northern Cairo suburb of Shubra El-Khaima, where the bomber also lived.

Friends of the man went to the village to pay condolences to his family but found no one at home, one friend told Reuters.

Two of the dead man’s brothers are also in custody, he added.

The circumstances of Youssef’s death were unclear and a spokesman at the Interior Ministry told Reuters he had no information about the case.

The government-financed Supreme Council for Human Rights said in its first annual report this month that at least nine Egyptians died in detention during 2004 and that torture was commonplace in Egyptian detention facilities.

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**sister_fatima** · 05-03-2005

Salam brothers and sisters. I am an American living in Cairo and the attacks last Friday deeply saddened me. First of all, I am muslimah il'humdulillah, but do you believe that I felt worried to go out after that? I wear hijab and definitly do not look like a tourist, but my family and I visit Khan al Khalili, Saida Aisha, and the area near the museum alot. My fear is mainly based on my kids, three little ones ages 5, 3 and 4 months, because we are constantly going out, taking walks, etc.. Now I feel like I did living in Chicago, always watching my back. It's so ironic! I came to live in a Muslim country because I was fed up with the kefer lifestyle in America. Now we Cairenes have to live in fear that the next time we go out an idiot could blow himself up and we're just "innocent bystanders." Such familiar terrminology of those inner-city Chicago streets. La illa hil Allah! This is not Islamic!!! It infuriates me that these people who did this don't realize that the ones who they are hurting are their fellow Egyptian brothers and sisters. I live near the pyramids where so many peoples' lives depend on tourism. How will they support their families after the tourists stop coming? Were they political or religious motivations for these attacks? The problem is that they tarnish the name of Islam when they do these despicable acts. I think we are now living in times where there is no safe place, in Muslim or kefer lands. I pray that others will realize that violence is not the solution to their broblems, and that we as Muslims can do so much with reason and intellect. LailhilAllah Mohammed rasul Allah. Salams.

**Tayyib musawwir** · 07-09-2005

Assalamu Alikum dear sister fatima wecome my name tayyib im black male21 born detroit if not heard khilji Dhaka indian male from Representative group from all muslim communities is lookin for other islamic people wood you in husben like join groups of his

**khilji** · 07-09-2005

Originally Posted by Tayyib musawwir

Assalamu Alikum dear sister fatima wecome my name tayyib im black male21 born detroit if not heard khilji Dhaka indian male from Representative group from all muslim communities is lookin for other islamic people wood you in husben like join groups of his

Brother Tayyib,

Please accept my personal thanks for making Dawah (invitation) into our group for the unity of the Ummah. I thank you again for your courage and feeling for the people of the Ummah.

Sister Fatima, the thread to join this group is here:

LI Islamic Forum > General Forums > World Affairs >
Representative group from all muslim communities

**Mr. Baldy** · 07-09-2005

aslaam alykum,

brother hash is right. to solve theses problems we dont need secular democracy or a dictatorship, we need islam.

ive also heard (correct me if i am wrong) that in cairo there are pubs, clubs e.t.c were the kuffar tourists g to 'hang out', know if this is true, that tourism is haram, so the money coming from it is haram, no?

its true groups like these are pushed to do theses kind of things, i must say it is haraam, but they are pushed. mubarak is just as bad as sadamm, opressing muslims and banning islamic groups, even peaceful groups like hizb ut tahrir, who work for islam intellectua\lly and politically to achieve ther goal of an islamic state. we do need islam to stop theses things from happening.

wa alykum aslaam

**khilji** · 07-09-2005

Brother Baldy,

Hizb ut Tahrir group has a noble goal, but the method I believe is wrong and that is why they are banned in many countries.

They do not promote violence, but promote peaceful transfer of power through political means, meaning they support forming opposition Islamist parties in all muslim majority countries of the world, and finally a "peaceful" overthrow of the "secular" governments.

The result of this stance is that although they make lot of noise and some Central Asian Dictators like the sicko and killer Karimov likes to make a bogeyman out of them, they are mostly looked at as a curious group with pipe dreams of Khilafah.

If we really care about the well being of the people of the Ummah, we must look for more practical means and ways and learn to play by the rules of the game, which has been already laid out for us. Antagonizing the ruling elite of all Muslim countries is not going to help, we must include them in our team effort.

It will not sound revolutionary and fashionable, but if we can build up support for an Islamic Common Market, it will change the fate of the people of the Ummah and bring the geographically diverse communities closer to each other.

The theory of super-states is not new, US, India and China are super-states. EC is striving to be one. Soviet Union fell apart, as communism failed as an ideology to ensure peoples prosperity and well being, not to mention its atheism was distasteful for many. No one can object if the Muslims of the Ummah want to work towards our own Islamic super state. Yes we can call it Khilafah, but it must evolve from current nation states gradually, with voluntary democratic moves and mechanisms, such as the EC.

The borderless superstate of Islam and its large economy in the past was the main reason for its richness and Insha-Allah it will happen again, but the path is not through groups like Al Queda, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, all of whom are intellectually and morally bankrupt. I would propose to all Muslims to join hands and work with steadfast resolve without extremism and with moderation with existing frameworks of OIC and D-8 type mechanisms, or create better newer mechanisms that bring faster results, which compliment their efforts.

When the Japanese and Germans were defeated in WW II, they came back and became winners, because they turned their warfare for economies and human resource development, so that they can compete in the market place and win market share. We, the Muslims also need to turn our energy towards developing our mind and body to unite and fight for our survival and well being with peaceful means, ie with improving our comparative advantage and winning market share, within our markets and then others. Killing and violence for land and other grievances will only throw us backwards.

Brother Hash,

I believe these terrorist acts are counter productive. We must recognize that it is our own incompetence and weakness why the three Islamic empires went down and Western colonizers cut them up into pieces and ate us alive. Only the weak blame others for their own problems.

It was our forefathers who were to blame, they were stupid and the West was smarter, that is why they lost. The Al Queda, Islamic Jihad and Hamas represent those same defeatist stupidity, which will only bring misery for the muslims of the Ummah.

Majority in the US now know that going into Iraq was a mistake, they are looking for a reasonable and acceptable exit route - many in the Sunni leadership are thinking seriously and have started the effort to join the team for writing the constitution. I do not understand what is being achieved there by killing fellow muslims. The sooner all factions join hands to stabilize the situation, the sooner it will be possible to ask the US troops to leave, which I am sure they will have to oblige - if Iraq's new parliament passes a law to that effect, after the election in next Janaury. If the Iraqi Muslim brothers can work together, then the US will eventually find that after 400 billion dollars and 3000 lives, they have achieved nothing but a new Islamic power in the Middle-east that is not foo friendly with the US. That will be the ultimate defeat of purpose of Bush's adventure, killing fellow muslims with tall talks of Jihad in the name of Islam I believe is Haram.

I do not like to criticize others, specially fellow muslims, but no matter how large a stature they have in people's mind from their famous actions, if I feel that he or she is acting against the interest of the Ummah, then I will speak my mind and no force in the world can stop me Insha-Allah, for I fear no one but Allah.