When not enough is done by super powers to stop terrorism

I didn’t dare watch the video of the attack on a mosque in Sinai until I had to write this column.

I knew it would take me back to December 1997 when I was part of a group of journalists and representatives of travel agencies invited by Egypt’s Tourism Ministry to try to promote Egypt again as a tourism destination.

I went back in time.20 years ago I stood in the place where tourists were butchered to death

I didn’t have the courage to sit and watch people again bleed to death because I know that nothing feels like being helpless and incapable of doing anything about it. And what even made it worse the fact that more than 20 children were also killed.

When more than 300 people are killed while praying ..it simply proves that these attacks have nothing to do with beliefs or religions.  It is just politics and the objectives behind them has nothing to do with what we disagree with each other with when it comes to religious beliefs.

When a church followed by a mosque become targets for terrorist attacks. It is proven that people behind mastering these terrorist acts are not Muslims and defaming the image of Islam is obviously not the main objective. It is power that drives people to do what we can’t imagine human beings are capable of doing.

Even animals do not kill their own kind.

We do.

In the case of what just happened in Egypt. No one has yet claimed responsibility but I’m confident some organization with an Islamic name will eventually do and what remains to be a puzzle how brainwashed targeted terrorists have become, they kill and in many cases commit suicide which is forbidden in all religions and leave behind their leaders whose lives are spared because their agendas purely revolve around power and rule.

In the deadliest attack in Egypt in recent memory, the bomb ripped through the mosque as Friday prayers were finishing..

The attack was carried out by 25 to 30 militants who opened fire on the worshippers.

Why and whose political agendas do these acts serve. 

As a Muslim myself I feel so ashamed when a so called Islamic organizations claims responsibility because no matter how much we repeat that Islam doesn’t provoke violence and terrorist acts, in the eyes of the countries where terrorist acts are performed, we become labelled as terrorist people.

When asked what your religion is, you can sometimes clearly see in their eyes how they look at us and to be honest I can barely blame them.

Anyway, what happened in Egypt this week took me back to Luxor December 1997.

We were a delegation from all around the world visiting Egypt and trying to promote it after what had very strongly hit the tourism and economic sectors.

We were taken to the square where the massacre took place on November 17, 1997.Exactly 20 years ago. 

And this is a story.

The Luxor massacre was the killing of 62 people, mostly tourists at a major tourism site.

It was instigated by exiled leaders of an Islamist organization, in an attempt to devastate the Egyptian economy and provoke the government into repression that would strengthen support for anti-government forces.

Of course members of the same organization took leading government positions when the Islamic Brotherhood took over Egypt following the revolution that for the first time in the Arab world’s history, the Muslim Brotherhood got a share of official political power.

With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes, during which many bodies were mutilated.

A note praising Islam was found inside a disemboweled body and the dead included a five-year-old  child.

20 years later, the dead became 300 including 25 children.

The attackers fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide. Suicide that is forbidden in all religions but maybe they sincerely believed that the reward of a terrorist is virgins in heaven

I did not go back to Luxor 1997 just to remind my readers that this terrorist attack happened and Egypt has always been a target or to remind my readers that those who killed President Anwar Al Sadat and were jailed by Jamal Abdel Nasser for their extreme agendas came to power one day in Egypt but to remind everyone that history repeats itself.

So called Islamists who shouldn’t definitely be labelled as Islamist one day succeeded in obtaining ultimate power by officially ruling Egypt.

Should just a few strikes against them be what needs to be done or should our leaders eradicate these organizations once and for all. It should not take decades to fight extreme ideologies. It should not take decades to stop them from breeding generations through which violence and terrorism continues.

Why are strong countries with the strongest military forces incapable of combatting terrorism.

More money is being spent on arms than improving people’s live standards and all we need to see a result. Why major budgets go to buying weapons with which we cannot defeat our enemies.

We as people truly prefer to live with less money but stop seeing women widowed, children killed and orphaned.

Take what needs to be taken ,buy as much weapons as you can if our military forces aren’t strong enough to put an end to terrorist organisations but stop the pain and the loss of lives that money can never buy.