Cairo (Fides Service) - “Everyone agrees that terrorism is evil. However it would be senseless to ignore the fact the some find ways to justify it. The Pope always warned that violence leads to more violence " said Fr Eugenio Elías, IVE (Institute of the Incarnate Word), on mission for several years in Egypt. He was speaking after the bomb explosions on 22 July at Sharm el Sheikh, in the Eyptian peninsula of Sinai, in which 88 people died and about 120 were injured. “In Egypt as in other countries affected by terrorism there is a strong feeling of uncertainty and vulnerability since it is practically impossibile to prevent a terrorist attack. Terrorism can only be ended by addressing the causes”.
“Unfortunately attacks on tourists are not new in Egypt” said Fr. Eugenio recalling the attacks in Egypt in 1997 at Hatshepsut temple in Luxor in which 58 Swiss and German tourists were killed. That attack had very serious consequences for the country: “the impact on the economy in a country where tourism is the main source of incombe was catastrophic: building of infrastructures stopped, hotels and restaurants emptied, thousands of people lost their jobs”. Seven years later the alram sounded again: “On 7 October last year a truck full of explosives drove into a hotel in Taba on the Sinai border with Israel leaving 34 dead and over 100 wounded”.
Fr Eugenio Elías said “Egypt is targeted because since it signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979, it is seen by Muslim extremists as a traitor, and even more considering the difficult balance of interests it keeps with the United States. These latest attacks in Sinai are part of the same sequence of international terrorism”.
The attacks will have a catastrophic effect on the economy in a country where 35% of the population is under 15 and the unemployment rate is 20%. "The experience of the years which followed the attacks in 1997 will be repeated and once again the majority of the people will be helpless victims of an aggression with which they cannot identify and for which they will pay a high price” said Fr. Eugenio. “it is clear that the people on the street in general reject the interpretation given to Islam by those who carry out these crimes - the missionary said - Indeed they are indignated and angered by this manipulation of their religion and they say this to their Christian neighbours who are 10% of the population. Terrorism is not a question of religion, it is the exploitation of religion”. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 26/7/2005 - Righe 32, Parole 467)