52 CultureShock! Egypt
precipitated, more open expression of discontent within
Egypt as cited below.
All in all, the number of terrorist incidents have declined
significantly since the 1980s and early to mid-1990s making
travel throughout Egypt safer for tourists and guests. It is
widely thought that the government’s tough tactics against
terrorists during this period removed most terror threats
within the country. In fact, since 1997, there were no acts of
terrorism against tourism within Egypt until 2004. There were
two terrorist events in Egypt in 1998, but there were internal
attacks against police and private citizens. It appears that
the predominant terrorist threat prior to 1998, al-Gamaa’a
al-Islamiyya (GAI), was eliminated either through members
going to prison, emigration to other countries, affiliation
with other groups, e.g., al-Qaeda, or conciliation with
the government.
Unfortunately, new efforts apparently designed to
destabilise the Egyptian government have resulted in
renewed terrorist attacks starting in 2004. The following
is a listing of events that have occurred since 2004. (Note
that one additional event is listed by some as a terrorist
act where an ‘Egyptian’ stabbed and killed an Israeli man
in 2002, but this is certainly not a mass-casualty event
generally thought of as terrorism.) Most consider these new
events to be attempts to weaken the Mubarak government.
Since attacking the government or military directly would
be unlikely to be successful, an attack on Egypt’s economy
appears to be the route of choice. These ‘new’ attacks target
Egypt’s US$6 billion tourism industry, Egypt’s leading source
of hard currency.
On 7 October 2004, in a co-ordinated attack, three bombs
went off almost simultaneously in the Sinai Peninsula
resorts of Taba and Ras al-Shitan killing 34 and wounding
upwards of 100 individuals. According to RAND Corporation
information reported by MIPT TKB: ‘investigators believe
the attacks were motivated by the deterioration of the
Palestinian situation, rather than the global jihad. Multiple
groups claimed responsibility for the attacks, though
none were ever substantiated’. One group that claimed