US to remove Al-Jama’ah Al-Islamiyah from the terrorist list ‘soon’, claims spokesman

Al-Jamaʻah Al-Islamiyah (“The Islamic Group”) in Egypt has reacted strongly to the US State Department’s decision to renew the group’s listing as a terrorist organisation. It was placed on the list by Washington in 1997 after a terrorist atrocity in Luxor, in which 80 people were killed, including some US citizens. The group said that there has been a lawsuit in a US court for years to overturn the terrorist designation.

According to a member of the group’s Shura (Consultative) Council, Sheikh Aboud Al-Zomor, the lawsuit is nearing its conclusion. He pointed out that the US court has suspended the case for several months pending a ruling by the European Court of Justice on a similar suit filed by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) regarding its own listing as a terrorist group by the EU.

The US decision will be influenced by this, explained Al-Zomor, because the charges against Hamas are similar to those against Al-Jamaʻah Al-Islamiyah; that is the assertion of the group’s defence team. He believes that the report prepared by the European Court prosecutor is in favour of Hamas in such a way that the US ruling may well remove the Egyptian group from the US terrorist list “soon”.

It is within this context that Al-Zomor condemned the US State Department’s renewal of the terrorist designation. He pointed to the arbitrary nature of the decision, which ignores the group’s initiative to stop violence and its commitment to peace, as well as its renouncement of violence. Al-Jamaʻah Al-Islamiyah, he added, is also involved in political activities.

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The Islamic organisation has set an example in peaceful commitment, insisted the official, and its associates have not been involved in acts of violence either inside Egypt or against Western interests since the beginning of its peace initiative. Its political party even participated in the elections of the Revolutionary People’s Assembly and 17 of its candidates won, gaining four million votes and confirming the existence of popular support for the group.

Al-Zomor asserted that the US State Department’s position confirms its distance from reality and does not take into account the developments on the ground as well as the group’s positions in support of peaceful action and initiatives for reconciliation in Egypt. He denounced attempts to introduce the Building and Development Party as part of the crisis, even though it is not involved in the issue, in such a manner that reflects “ignorance and bad faith.” It is, he concluded, an attempt to trap and distort the image of Al-Jama’ah Al-Islamiyah and its political wing.