‘No one is safe,’ warns new Egyptian Center for Combating Terrorism

In its inaugural conference held on Monday at the Cairo Opera House, the Egyptian Center for Combating Terrorism announced that it aims to be a leading power in combating terrorism in Egypt and worldwide through awareness, research and the arts.

Daily full-page ads that ran in several of Egypt’s highest circulating papers in the weeks leading up to center's first conference reveal that it is handsomely funded. While it is officially a non-governmental organization, the presence of Endowments Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa at the inaugural conference and media reports of donations by officials reveals a level of support and coordination with the government.

When asked about the funding of the center in a recent interview with privately owned paper Youm7, the center’s founders didn’t give a clear answer and only referred to the fundraising successes of the Suez Canal Fund and the economic conference held in March in Sharm el Sheikh – both government projects – as models they aspire to follow.

In his opening speech Amin Lotfy, president of Beni Suef University and the head of the center’s board of directors,  spoke about the importance of the people taking part in the war on terror, while the screens fixed next to the stage warned: “Today, no one is safe. We are all threatened. Terrorism is behind our doors, killing those who deserve to live.”

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi frequently asserts in his speeches that eradicating terrorism is the responsibility of the people as well as the government.

The conference reflected the center’s alignment with the state’s rhetoric regarding terrorism. The event bolstered ultra-nationalism, warning all Egyptians that they could be the terrorists’ next targets and demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood, framing them as being solely responsible for terrorism in Egypt.

Throughout the event, an amplified sense of terror was being transmitted. After a children’s singing troop featured in the program finished their performance of patriotic songs, the event’s MC, talk show host Rami Radwan looked at the young girls and asked, “What does terrorism want from these innocent children? May God damn all terrorists.”

Akram Ismail, member of the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, says that a state-aligned conference is not nearly enough to combat a social ailment like terrorism.

“There is no combating terrorism without a society that’s capable of initiative. The state can’t enlighten alone, there has to be a social movement,” he says.

While this state-affiliated initiative receives huge support, Ismail says that the state has simultaneously closed down positive cultural initiatives such as El Fann Midan, a monthly public music festival, and has paralyzed the ability of large independent civil society initiatives to perform any social activity. Akram said that opening up public space for civil society, including the opposition, is necessary to start raising awareness and eradicating terrorism.

The crackdown on civil society adds to social discrimination, which has created a lot of frustration, and this is not conducive to fighting terrorism or any social ailment, he asserted. On the contrary it helps it fester.

Although no specific projects were announced, the center said that its activities would include legal research, developing strategic plans to eradicate terrorism, using cultural production to fight extremist thought and trying to eradicate financial and logistical support to terrorists among other goals.

A short film titled Where it Started, produced by the center and directed by Mohamed Fadel, a member of its advisory board, was screened during the conference. It aimed to explain the origins of terrorism in Egypt.

The film reflects an oversimplified explanation that traces the origins of terrorism to the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928. It overlooks the social and political factors that fed into the organization’s beginnings. The film represents the 2011 revolution as the point when foreign intelligence organizations had the opportunity to infiltrate Egypt and bring the Brotherhood into power. It then celebrates June 30 and the removal of the Brotherhood from power as the point at which the Egyptian people liberated themselves.

The film ends with a voice yelling at the viewers: “Beware! Beware of the conspiracies against us! Beware of the conspiracies against us!”