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Egypt Downplays ISIS Threats against Historical Giza Pyramid Complex | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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ISIS destroys ancient Palmyra temple, Reuters


Cairo- Egyptian authority downplayed on Wednesday the threat ISIS made on staging terrorist attacks against the historical Giza pyramid complex.

Ashraf Mohi, Director-General of Giza Plateau, giving low profile to the posed threats said that it is impossible for terrorist attacks to breach the site– the site enjoys strict security measures that no access is granted without passing through one of the checkpoints.

Security sources at the Ministry of Interior confirmed that Egypt’s touristic landmarks are firmly secured and are monitored around the clock, which makes it difficult for any vandalism or acts of terror to target historical venues.

The threats came in as Egypt’s Dar Al-Ifta (an educational institute founded to represent Islam and a center for Islamic legal research) announced that ISIS’ cancellation of the Tarawih (prayers performed by Sunni Muslims at night in the Islamic month of Ramadan) at the mosques subject to their dominance goes against the law and the Sunna (Muslim law based on Muhammad’s words or acts)—Tarawih have been performed by Muslims throughout centuries now.

ISIS broadcasted a video recording which views terrorists blowing up the 2500-year-old Babylonian Nabu temple in Iraq. In the video, an armed terrorist threatens to destroy the Nabu temple in the Assyrian old city of Nimrud before a loud explosion breaks through the image and reduces the temple into rubble.

The last video ISIS circulated featured the Cairo Giza complex, and another ISIS terrorist threatening its ruin. The terrorist claimed that the historical sites have been constructed by so-called infidels.

In the video, ISIS referred to its so-called religious institution decreeing, in 2015, the destruction of all archeological sites and the forbidding of studying historical venues, allegedly for their violation of the Holy Quran. The greatest staged violence ISIS had made against the archeological community is tearing down the Assyrian city of Nimrud and other equally valuable sites in Iraq and Syria.

Cairo’s Dar Al-Ifta says that ISIS’ violence against heritage is of a defective nature and perverted, confirming that only ignorance guides extremists. Terrorists do not interpret nor abide by neither the holy Quran nor the Sunna, the Islamic institution said.

On his behalf, Director General Mohi said that the Giza plateau is enclosed by gates and checkpoints which scrutinize all that enters the premise or leaves it. Moreover, he added that tourist department security officers are deployed across the area intensively. The team ensuring the zone’s safety are highly trained and qualified to protect the site, Mohi said.

Security sources said that the Giza pyramid complex has 197 stationary monitoring cameras and moving radars which ensure the security of the venue.