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Egypt: ISIS Claims Responsibility for Coptic Church Attack | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Coffins are taken into ambulances after a funeral service for victims of a Sunday cathedral bombing, at the Virgin Mary Church, in Cairo, Egypt on Monday. Egypt’s president says a suicide bomber caused the explosion that killed 24 Christians during Sunday Mass at a Cairo chapel. (NARIMAN EL-MOFTY/AP)


Cairo – ISIS group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Coptic cathedral in Cairo that killed 24 people on Sunday, following reports issued by Egyptian Security services stating that a terrorist cell with Takfiri ideologies was behind the attack.

The security sources said that the terrorist group was inspired by the teachings of Islamist Ideologue Sayyid Qutb, who was executed in Cairo in the mid-1960s, to spread a wave of terror in the Egyptian capital.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, ISIS identified the bomber as Abu Abdallah al-Masri. The group warned of more attacks against Christians to come.

“Every infidel and apostate in Egypt and everywhere should know that our war … continues,” ISIS statement read as quoted by Reuters.

The Interior Ministry identified the bomber on Monday as 22-year-old student Mahmoud Shafik Mohammed Mostafa, and said he was a supporter of the banned Muslim Brotherhood political movement who had joined a militant cell while on the run from police.

In a statement, the Ministry of Interior said that a terrorist cell led by Mohab Mostafa El-Sayed Kassem (aka The Doctor) – a man born in 1986 and who is currently on the run – perpetrated the attack.

Egyptian security sources said that Kassem was inspired by Qutb teachings.

Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian intellectual author, and Islamist associated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. He is best known for his theoretical work on redefining the role of Islamic fundamentalism in social and political change, particularly in his books “Social Justice” and Ma’alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones).

Qutb was arrested and imprisoned in 1955 following publication of Milestones. In August 1966 he was executed, found guilty of conspiring against the government.