The bloody tragedy at Al-Raudhah Mosque in Bir al-Abd, North Sinai, got the world’s attention. The event is an important warning for us that extremist groups can carry out brutal acts at any time, including in holy places, including mosques.
Just imagine: dozens of terrorists encircled a mosque where many people observed Friday prayers. During the sermon, the terrorists attacked the congregation with rifles, killing 305 people, including 27 children, and injuring hundreds of others.
Al-Azhar Grand Imam Syaikh Ahmed Tayyeb strongly condemned the tragedy by calling the terrorist attack as betrayal and crime. The terrorist act constitutes an insult that does not reflect religious values and morals. Their action can even be categorized as deviant from the essence of religion, moral depravity and acute frustration.
Immediately after the incident, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi ordered the nation’s security apparatuses to carry out large-scale arrests and resistance measures against the terrorists. El-Sisi also warned all Egyptian people to be on alert, because the terrorists could launch unexpected actions at any time.
President El-Sisi also asked Donald Trump to launch serious efforts to crush the terrorists. Not long after that, Trump responded on his Twitter account and promised to quell the terrorists using the military. The world was asked to unite and work hand-in-hand to stop the terrorists.
Extremist theology
As has already been assured, after the Al-Raudhah Mosque tragedy, Egypt launched large-scale measures to prevent and fight against terror. Egypt used the moment to increase solidarity among its people that the terrorists are a common enemy that could spread evil and commit violence against anyone at any time.
If we look at the terrorist targets in Egypt over the last several years, it can be seen how the root of problem lies in erroneous understanding, which gives birth to erroneous comprehension. Fathi Mahmud (2017) mentioned that the largest problem Egypt faced in the rise of terrorist acts was extremist thinking (shina’at al-tatharruf), produced continuously upon the religious stage.
One of the prominent extremist thoughts is to strengthen extremist theology, which is marked by branding others as al-takfir (infidels) and murder. This theology is apparently growing and spreading without any serious deconstruction efforts. As a result, a person or a group can easily brand anyone with different views, whether of the same religion or not, as infidel.
Extremist groups in the Sinai area within the last year are very actively spreading its teaching to call others infidels. They use the online media, al-Naba’, which specializes in labeling the Sufi community as infidel. They have also threatened to attack the Al-Jaririyyah order in Bir al-Abd.
A group known as the Islamic State in the Sinai territory, openly declared the Al-Jaririyyah Sufi order and the order’s murshid (guiding teacher), Syaikh ’Id Abu Jarir, as thoghut and syirk. Its followers are classified as infidels. Not stopping there, the Islamic State in Sinai claim that they have an obligation to kill the followers of the Al-Jaririyyah Sufi order.
Extremist theology is very frightening because it has an objective to spread crimes. They want to kill those who have been branded infidels. In fact, throughout the Islamic world, Sufi followers are known as people who are devoted to worship and choose the path of religious spirituality.
If we look at the declaration issued by the Islamic State in Sinai, the attack on Al-Raudhah Mosque was not a spontaneous event. The extremists had a very organized plan to attack the followers of the Al-Jaririyyah order.
They openly and massively spread threats and hate speech against the Al-Jaririyyah order. Therefore, the hate speech constitutes a serious problem that should not be viewed lightly. Hate speech is a tool extremists commonly use to persecute and discriminate groups that are deemed to oppose them.
Unfortunately, the Sufi community and badui groups are not fully aware of the Islamic State in Sinai’s threats. Therefore, they cannot anticipate the deadly attacks that the extremists plan.
In reality, according to The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, within the last year, the Islamic State in Sinai launched 130 attacks in the North Sinai Governorate. From 2013 to 2017, up to 1,000 soldiers were killed, and about 200 soldiers were murdered in 2017.
Extremist theology has shown that it not only targets the Sufi community, but also security apparatuses. They have goals that cannot be taken lightly, because they actually want to control a territory, as has been carried out in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. In essence, they want to make North Sinai the base of their movement.
Learning from Egypt
The massive terrorist attacks show that extremist theology cannot be taken lightly. If it is not anticipated properly, it will lead to fatal results. Extremist theology succeeds in dulling the conscience and sense of humanity, which can ultimately lead to the killing of people observing prayers.
Moreover, extremist theology is increasingly gaining momentum because it thrives in northern Sinai, which is known to be underdeveloped and poor. The Egyptian government’s neglect of their fate has made some residents choose to become a part of deadly extremist communities like Al Qaeda and IS.
Therefore, we can learn from the deadly event in Egypt. First, we should not take lightly the emergence of extremism and hate speech, a source of the acute problem of extremism. Terrorism will never disappear if extremist theology continues to flourish on the religious stage and social media.
Moderate groups have to work hard to carry out deradicalization. Extremist theology has to be criticized and replaced by the theology of love and hospitality. We have to prevent any efforts of extremist groups that want to hijack the essence of religion, which teaches love, tolerance and harmony.
Second, we cannot neglect the economic, political, and social rights of citizens. Poverty, social injustice, and unemployment constitute an objective condition that enables extremism to flourish. People in such a condition can easily become extremist prey.
The shallow understanding of religion and the objective condition of poverty are serious problems Egypt is currently facing. Other Middle Eastern countries, such as Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Tunisia, are also facing a similar condition. These countries are facing serious problems because extremist groups can use the momentum created by political and economic instability as fertile ground to sow the seeds of extremist theology.
Those of us in Indonesia are more fortunate than those countries, but we also should not be careless in the least. Extremist theology has to be amputated by offering the correct understanding of honorable values in religion.
In reality, religion is used as an instrument among the followers of the same religion, as well as citizens, to respect and appreciate each other. As Bung Karno said in his speech on June 1, 1945, we should ground the understanding of the one God, namely through culture – not fanatically and not egoistically – among religious followers by respecting and appreciating each other.
Moreover, the government should continue its work to realize political sovereignty, economic independence, and character through culture. The government\'s steps to accelerate populist programs on a massive scale to get rid of poverty is an efficient way to amputate extremism at its roots.
ZUHAIRI MISRAWI
Alumnus of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, and chainman of the Society of Moderate Muslims (MMS)
