Egypt: Jihad/martyrdom suicide bomber behind bus blast; victims were Korean Christians visiting holy sites

“An al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, took responsibility for the bombing. On its Twitter account, the organization promised to continue to attack Egypt’s economy, tourism, and military.” Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis means Supporters of the Holy House, that is, Supporters of Jerusalem — illustrating in itself the truth of Aviv Oreg’s observation that attacks like this one are designed to show that “Israel is their target in their aspirations.” And they consider that if they can destabilize the Egyptian economy and government in the bargain, so much the better.

“Egypt says suicide bomber caused deadly bus blast,” from the Times of Israel, February 17:

CAIRO,

A suicide bomber was behind the deadly blast that tore through a bus carrying South Korean tourists, Egyptian security officials said.

The officials said the bomber boarded the bus while it waited near the Egypt-Israel border crossing at Taba in the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian driver and the South Korean guide had disembarked but were close to the bus when Sunday’s blast took place, according to the officials….

South Korean officials said the bombing killed three South Koreans and an Egyptian driver. The tourists were Korean Christians who had saved for years to visit Biblical sites on their church’s 60th anniversary.

“The preliminary investigation shows some tourists disembarked to get their bags. A man walked to the bus. There was an explosion when he reached the third step,” interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told AFP.

The tourists were all members of the same church group from the central South Korean county of Jincheon and were on a 12-day trip through Turkey, Egypt and Israel. They were about to cross into Israel when the attack occurred.

The South Korean ambassador to Egypt, Kim Young-So, told Seoul’s MBN TV station that the bus bombing appeared to be a “suicide bombing by a terrorist.”

An al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, took responsibility for the bombing. On its Twitter account, the organization promised to continue to attack Egypt’s economy, tourism, and military.

The group, based in the Sinai Peninsula, has deployed several suicide bombers in attacks on police, as well as in a failed attempt to assassinate interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim in September.

Fifteen survivors from the blast crossed into Israel on Monday and are staying at a hotel in the resort city of Eilat, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported. Other tourists who had been on the bus carrying 33 were still hospitalized in the Sinai.

Egypt had reportedly refused offers of Israeli help after the blast, transporting at least 12 injured people to hospitals in the Sinai peninsula instead of the closer Yoseftal Hospital in Eilat….

Maj. (res.) Aviv Oreg, formerly the head of Al Qaeda and Global Jihad desk at the Israel Defense Force’s military intelligence directorate, said the bombing was likely intended to send a message to Jerusalem and Cairo.

For jihadist organizations in the Sinai Peninsula, this sort of attack is ”very sufficient in order to pinpoint that Israel is their target in their aspirations,” he told The Times of Israel.

Police under now deposed president Hosni Mubarak had all but stamped out Islamist militancy after a spate of Sinai resort bombings between 2004 and 2006.

But the three-year period of lawlessness and unrest after Mubarak’s overthrow in 2011 has allowed the militants to regroup in the restive Sinai peninsula and to branch out to the Nile Delta.

“A continuation in attacks on tourists would mean a shift in strategy by jihadist groups that until now targeted the military and police,” said Issandr El Amrani of the International Crisis Group.

“But that cannot be judged after one attack,” he added.

The head of Egypt’s Chamber of Tourism said the attack could have been aimed at hitting the tourism industry, one of Egypt’s top revenue generators.

“The attack aimed at harming tourism in general,” said Elhami al-Zayat….

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Interfaith outreach in Nigeria: Chanting Allahu akbar, Muslims murder over 50 Christians

This is the kind of story that shows how truly evil the “Islamophobia” smear campaign against foes of jihad terror really is. Reporting on this kind of story gets one charged with being an “Islamophobe.” No one dares speak up for the persecuted Christians, because they don’t want to be tarred as “hateful” and “bigoted,” and that is what happens to everyone who does speak's up. This is what the smearmongers are enabling: the murder of ever more innocent people, while the world human rights community looks the other way or commissions another study about “Islamophobia.”

Also, the jihadis chanting “Allahu akbar” yet again gives the lie to the common assumption in the West that jihadis have only a peripheral or incidental relationship to Islam, when in reality it is at the heart of their motivations.

“Survivors: Extremists kill dozens, slit throats, of Christians in northeast Nigerian village,” by Ibrahim Abdulaziz for the Associated Press, February 16 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

YOLA, Nigeria (AP) Chanting “Allah is great,” suspected Islamic militants gunned down dozens of Christian villagers and slit the throats of others in the latest attack in a northeast Nigerian area where the military has been bombing extremists out of forest hideouts, survivors said Sunday.

Local government chairman Maina Ularamu told The Associated Press he has reports of more than 50 people killed in Saturday night’s attack on Izghe village in Borno state.

One survivor said the village list of those killed amounted to 63 dead. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

He said the attackers looted the village food stores and made off with about 10 vehicles.

Survivors said they are among hundreds of people from Izghe and neighboring villages who fled on foot through the bush in the night from Borno into Adamawa, two of three northeast Nigerian states under a state of emergency to halt a 4-year-old Islamic uprising. The area is inhabited mainly by Christians in the overwhelmingly Muslim north of Nigeria.

Insurgents of the Boko Haram terrorist network routinely attack civilians after they are attacked by the military….

Thousands of Muslims and Christians have been killed and tens of thousands forced from their homes by the state of emergency and by militants who want to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer with a population of more than 160 million made up of about equal numbers of Christians and Muslims.

Source: Jihadwatch
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Study shows that Christians are world's most oppressed religious group

“Islamophobia”-mongers such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Reza Aslan’s Aslan Media, the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hardest hit. If the mainstream media were not as thoroughly corrupt and compromised as it is, it would pick up on this and stop furthering the Islamic supremacist line that the truth about Islamic jihad violence must be told for fear of increasing the victimization of innocent Muslims. No innocent people of any creed should ever be victimized; but it is actually the world’s Christians who are bearing the brunt of religion-based attacks.
“Pew Study: Christians Are The World’s Most Oppressed Religious Group,” by Barbara Boland for CNS News, February 6 (thanks to Mackie):
Restrictions, harassment, and intimidation towards people who practice their religion increased in every major region of the world in 2012 except the Americas, with Christians the major target, says a new report by the Pew Research Center.

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Muslim persecution of Christians rose sharply worldwide in 2013/2014 likely to be worse

Not to worry. The “Muslim-Christian dialogue” will solve this in a jiffy. “Rise of radical Islam made life worse for Christians in 2013, with more to come in 2014,” by Ashe Schow for the Washington Examiner, February 2
Persecution of Christians continues to worsen, fueled in part by the “Arab Spring,” which not only unleashed a wave of Islamist radicalism across the Arab world but also left Christians holding the blame for many of the uprisings that removed Arab leaders from power.
In 2013, 2,123 Christians were killed in persecution around the world, up from 1,201 in 2012.
In countries across the Middle East, North Africa and south Asia, Christians are murdered or imprisoned, their homes and businesses destroyed and their rights removed. This area represents just four percent of the world’s 2.2 billion Christians, but the treatment they receive is nothing short of horrific.

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Raymond Ibrahim: Al-Qaeda Defender of Christians?

The surest way of exposing its supremacist and intolerant elements and one of the main reasons the major media and establishment rarely report or address it.

The logic (fully explained here) can be summarized as follows:
Islamic and jihadi attacks targeting the West or Israel pose no problem to the image of Islam.  No matter how violent or brutal, no matter how many Islamic slogans are shrieked.
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