[jessefan]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ilitants_dc&e=2

Egyptian Islamist Group Drops Guns, Turns to Print
Sat Nov 29, 8:24 AM ET

By Tom Perry

CAIRO (Reuters) - When Islamic militants massacred 58 foreign tourists in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1997, their organization promised more violence would follow.



Instead, leaders of al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, whose members carried out the Luxor attack, have taken to the printing presses to renounce violence, condemn al Qaeda and ditch the idea that taking state power is the key to making Egypt more devout.


"There should not be anyone in our ranks who thinks about restarting the wheel of violence again," wrote al-Gama'a leaders, who first called for a cease-fire before the 1997 Luxor attack even as some members pledged to fight on.


One of their books, published in September under the title "River of Memories," lays out a radical shift in the ideas of the largest group to take part in a bloody insurgency that cost the lives of 1,200 people in the 1990s and which aimed to set up a strict Islamic order in Egypt.


Some analysts say their rejection of violence might help tame radicals outside Egypt, in the same way that Egyptian 20th century extremists inspired today's militants such as Saudi-born Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) or his Egyptian aide Ayman al-Zawahri.


"Al-Gama'a leaders are well known and respected in the Arab world. When such people publish new arguments, for sure it will affect some of their friends in other Arab countries," militant Islam expert Diaa Rashwan told Reuters.


That could offer hope to others, like Saudi Arabia, facing a wave of militancy blamed on al Qaeda.


Saudi Arabia has pledged to use an "iron fist" to deal with its militants, similar to the approach Egypt has used to crush its own militant problem, partly through applying emergency laws in place since Islamists killed President Anwar Sadat in 1981.


DRAWING SCORN


But al-Gama'a's message of moderation has drawn scorn from some Islamists, including bin Laden. Some of them say the government, which still arrests groups it accuses of militancy, co-opted the group's leaders during their years in prison.


In a recent tape attributed to bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader attacked those in Arab states, including Egypt, who "call for the peaceful democratic solution in dealing with apostate governments or the invading crusaders and Jews, instead of fighting in the path of God."


Rashwan said the remarks, broadcast in October, were partly aimed at al-Gama'a, which in a second book published in September extended criticism of al Qaeda's tactics by condemning bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco in May. Al Qaeda was blamed for the attack in the Saudi capital that killed nine Americans.


In the second book, called "The Riyadh Explosions -- Judgments and Effects," al-Gama'a leaders said U.S. "oppression" of Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) did not justify killing Americans because of their nationality.


"These explosions put all Islamists in a war with the West...A war (the Islamists) did not want," they wrote.


But Egyptian Islamist Yasser al-Sirry said the moderate stance of al-Gama'a leaders had been shaped by government incentives, not religious conviction.


London-based Sirry said many militants in Egypt had merely gone into "hibernation" and not renounced violence.


ISLAMIC STATE





Emad Shahin, an expert in political Islam at the American University in Cairo, said a return to violence by al-Gama'a was unlikely partly because Egypt's society had become more outwardly religious even without implementing strict religious rule.

"Even though the security solution has won, Islamic appeal is increasing," Shahin said, pointing to the growth of religious television programs and rising popularity of the Islamic veil for women.

Some analysts also say al-Gama'a's violent tactics of the past alienated most Egyptians rather than winning it support.

The al-Gama'a leadership now say seizing state power is not necessarily the way to make society more Islamic. "Founding the religion has many ways, which should not be ignored, other than the armed, violent way," they wrote in "River of Memories."

"As for the establishment of an Islamic state, whoever thinks that setting up the state is a goal which all aspire to is very wrong," they said, adding that their organization would pursue social work, such as teaching and health care.

Al-Gama'a's shift is not the first time an Egyptian Islamist group has ditched violence to pursue its goals. The banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, set up in Egypt in 1928 and from which al-Gama'a evolved, long ago halted violence at home.

"Now in Egypt we have the majority of the Islamists in one school of thought -- the political Islamist school. The school of violent ideas, or the jihad school, has disappeared," Rashwan said.