Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05CAIRO5757
2005-07-27 13:49:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Cairo
Cable title:  

SPEAKING WITH MUSLIM LEADERS ABOUT TERRORIST ACTS

Tags:  KISL PTER KPAO EG 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 005757 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/26/2015
TAGS: KISL PTER KPAO EG
SUBJECT: SPEAKING WITH MUSLIM LEADERS ABOUT TERRORIST ACTS

REF: A. STATE 121757


B. CAIRO 4877

Classified by Charge Stuart E. Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 005757

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/26/2015
TAGS: KISL PTER KPAO EG
SUBJECT: SPEAKING WITH MUSLIM LEADERS ABOUT TERRORIST ACTS

REF: A. STATE 121757


B. CAIRO 4877

Classified by Charge Stuart E. Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Embassy Cairo warmly welcomes the Department's
initiative outlined in ref A. The Embassy has a strong
record of engagement and contacts with influential Islamic
leaders in Egypt but agrees more can and should be done. Key
leaders like Sheikh Tantawi are generally allies in the
struggle against extremism, but are constrained both by
poorly executed media relations and a tendency to follow
perceived public opinion rather than staking out a more
affirmative role in shaping it. The repugnant July 23 terror
attack in Sharm el-Sheikh, which claimed far more Egyptian
victims than foreign, has repulsed the Egyptian public and
constitutes a potential opportunity to make progress in the
war of ideas against violent Islamist extremism. The Embassy
will continue and step up its engagement of key Islamic
institutions and influential leaders. However, some
Egyptians, particularly youth, have already tuned out the
Islamic establishment. Reaching this audience and
influencing their thinking constitutes the greatest
challenge. End summary.

--------------
Embassy Outreach
--------------


2. (C) The Embassy has a strong record of engagement and
cultivation of contacts in Egypt's Islamic community. Sheikh
Tantawi, who as Imam of Al-Azhar, is the senior spiritual
leader of Egypt's Sunni Muslim majority, has been a regular
and faithful interlocutor of past U.S. Ambassadors and
visiting senior USG officials. The Embassy also maintains
strong working level contacts at Al-Azhar, the thousand
year-old institution which remains one of the most
influential centers of thought in Sunni Islam. We also have
regular contact with Egypt's Supreme Islamic Council, the
office of the Mufti of the Republic, and the Ministry of
Islamic Endowments (Awqaf). We have engaged in a number of
activities with these contacts, ranging from representational
events, to paying office calls on key Islamic leaders, to
inviting clerics to celebrate Ramadan with Muslim communities
in the U.S., and facilitating visas for them.


3. (C) A May 2005 lunch in honor of the outgoing Charge

hosted by Dr. Ali Samman, a senior advisor to Sheikh Tantawi,
typified ongoing Embassy efforts to convey our message on the
need for credible and moderate Islamic voices to rise in
challenge to the rhetoric employed by extremist clerics.
Lunch guests, including several members of the Supreme
Islamic Council and Sheikh Tantawi's principal deputy did not
disagree, but objected to western tendencies to blur the
distinction between extremists and the peaceful majority of
Muslims. Acknowledging that more education and outreach
about Islam in the U.S. and other countries would be useful,
the Charge and emboffs stressed the U.S. view that the
ideological front lines were here in Egypt and other Muslim
countries, where extremist clerics were finding receptive
audiences among too many Muslim youth. Emboffs have had many
similar conversations with Muslim thinkers and writers, at
various levels and in different fora.

--------------
Constraining Factors
--------------


4. (C) The Embassy closely monitors statements by influential
Islamic leaders in Egypt that have potential implications for
U.S. policy, and reports regularly. Statements by key
leaders like Sheikh Tantawi and Mufti Ali Gom'a, who we
generally view as allies in the ideological struggle against
violent religious extremism, are not always entirely helpful.
Even when carefully parsed, their remarks are often
distorted by the biased and unprofessional members of Egypt's
press corps. Two problems govern this phenomenon, one
procedural and one political.


5. (C) On the procedural level, public statements by Sheikh
Tantawi, the Mufti, and others, printed on letter head and
issued by press officers are rare. Key statements on timely
issues, reported in the Egyptian media, usually originate
from off-the-cuff remarks to the press, often lurking outside
their office doors. Al-Azhar rarely makes its own
transcripts or recordings of such remarks. We have often
been told by Tantawi's staff that remarks he has made,
appearing to condone acts of terror in Iraq or Palestine, are
misquotes or distortions of the Sheikh's actual words, yet
Al-Azhar rarely, if ever, publicly challenges or disclaims
them.


6. (C) On the political level, an apparent fear of straying
too far from public opinion also seems to constrain the
rhetoric of Egypt's important and influential moderate
Islamic leaders. Conventional wisdom in Egypt holds that
Tantawi, in particular, is viewed as too close and obedient
to the GOE, which after all appointed him, a view Tantawi and
other "establishment" clerics are no doubt aware. The Sheikh
often stresses that his jurisdiction is limited to spiritual
rather than political affairs, and has used this argument to
avoid overly specific public pronouncements on issues such as
Iraq and Palestine, preferring to stick to a gray area where
"resistance to occupation" is legitimate, and even a sacred
duty, while killing civilians and innocents of any
nationality is forbidden. Such positions, which try to
satisfy both sides, usually end up pleasing neither.

--------------
From the Ashes...Opportunity
--------------


7. (C) The repugnant July 23 terrorist attack in Sharm
el-Sheikh, for which responsibility remains obscure, carried
the signature of a typical "martyrdom" operation conducted by
violent Islamist radicals. While some Egyptian reactionaries
have predictably accused "Mossad or the CIA" of
responsibility, the more widely held view on the Egyptian
street is that Islamist radicals, homegrown or imported, are
indeed the most likely culprits. In the days since the
attack, Egypt has witnessed a media offensive, unprecedented
at least in recent years, against Islamist/terrorist
ideologies.


8. (C) Major Egyptian and regional papers have carried
numerous commentaries assailing the attack, its perpetrators,
and any ideological justification for it. An interesting
trend is the number of commentaries penned by long-time
adversaries of the Muslim Brotherhood (the MB - which
condemned the Sharm attacks). Longtime MB antagonists, like
leftist opposition leader Rif'at Said, have slammed the MB
for paying lip service to condemning terror while fomenting
the angry and intolerant attitudes which ultimately evolve
into terrorist ideology.


9. (C) In Egypt's Islamic establishment, Sheikh Tantawi and
Mufti Gom'a issued sharp condemnations of the Sharm attacks
within hours of their occurrence. Tantawi called the attack
the "work of the devil...an ugly and cowardly act..." Major
Egyptian dailies also reported on July 26 that Dr. Hamdy
Zaqzouq, the Minister of Awqaf, had approved, apparently in
reaction to the Sharm attacks, a new public education
campaign that clarifies the concepts of martyrdom and
"jihad," underscores the forbidden nature of terrorism, and
stresses tolerant interpretations of Islam.

--------------
Looking Ahead
--------------


10. (C) The Embassy, in discussions with Islamic contacts,
and more broadly with Egyptian interlocutors across various
fields, is seizing on the Sharm attack as a wake up call for
Egyptians of all persuasions to unite in the ideological
battle against violent perversions of Islamic theology. The
Embassy will also seek out near term opportunities for
meetings with key figures like the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the
Mufti, and the Minister of Awqaf to press for further and
more explicit condemnations of outrages like the Sharm
attack, as well as the illegitimate "martyrdom" operations
taking such a catastrophic toll in Iraq, as well as the
destructive role radical Islamist violence has played in
undermining Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

--------------
Comment
--------------


11. (C) Getting moderately inclined Islamic leaders like
Tantawi, the Mufti, and the Minister of Awqaf, and key
members of the institutions they represent, to issue more
decisive and regular statements distancing mainstream Islam
from radical, violent ideologies has built-in challenges, as
discussed paras 4-6. The effort is nonetheless well worth
it, these figures occupy bully pulpits and are virtually
guaranteed to make headlines, or get airtime, whenever they
open their mouths. At the same time another, greater
challenge looms. Many in Egypt, particularly youth who might
be the most susceptible to extremist teachings, have already
tuned out Egypt's Islamic establishment. They regard many
senior clerics as out of touch, or even "agents of the U.S.
Zionist conspiracy." Winning over this category of people
will require a more sustained and thoughtfully designed
effort implemented over the coming years.


Visit Embassy Cairo's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/cairo

You can also access this site through the
State Department's Classified SIPRNET website.

JONES