Global Pulse: The lessons being ignored from the Egypt terror strike

Screengrab from report on Egypt bombing

Egypt witnessed one of its worst episodes of terror in recent history while London experienced mass hysteria over a false terrorist attack, showing how different societies react to terror—and the heartbreaking familiarity with which we respond to it.

The “new normal”

A devastating attack on a Sufi mosque left at least 305 people dead in Egypt on Friday. Not only does it represent a dangerous escalation of violence, “it also reflects a dramatic expansion of terrorism across North Africa and the Middle East over the past five years,” writes Robert Muggah in Politico.

“The savage attack on worshipers in Bir al-Abed is a reminder that the vast majority of terrorist-related killings don’t occur in European capitals but in lesser known cities across North Africa and the Middle East,” he writes.

While it is certain that Egypt will not be the last site to face such a deadly attack, there may be a solution in sight.

“The most direct way to address them is to dramatically scale up efforts to end simmering armed conflicts across the region,” he writes.

Addressing the issues of Sinai

The attack on civilians by militants in Egypt was not just an act of terror. It is also, as Mona Eltahawy writes in the New York Times, “a bloody reminder of the tragic failure of successive governments to quell a tenacious insurgency — despite brutal, oppressive attempts to do so.”

A state of emergency has been imposed in the nothern Sinai region of Egypt since 2014 and there’s been a media blackout for years. The attack on Friday, Eltahawy writes, is a sign of the larger struggles the region is facing.

“Those who are serious about Egypt’s security have long pleaded for development for the marginalized and neglected North Sinai. Yet a promised development plan has been stalled for decades, leaving residents simmering with anger and resentment,” she writes.

Neglected by Egypt’s former presidents, Mohamed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak, the current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is also skirting around the region, and rarely mentions it. And that might be his biggest mistake. Sisi needs to commit to known antidotes to terrorism like jobs, dignity and providing a life worth living, Eltahawy writes.

“For Egyptians everywhere, especially in North Sinai, he has failed to deliver on all three,” she says.

Panic on Oxford Street

In London, a false alarm triggered a frenzy that echoed across the nation. Two men got into a fight at the Oxford Circus tube station, but the situation snowballed into hysteria as rumours of gunshots being heard quickly spread.

The rumours were bolstered by social media, with people tweeting that they too had heard shots. However, the escalation of a minor incident makes perfect sense given the fact that 36 people have died and hundreds were injured in four terror attacks in the UK this year, writes Matthew d’Ancona in The Guardian.

“There is a morally shoddy yearning to avert our eyes from this simple fact and to focus instead on secondary issues: on immigration, on the ethics of giving terrorists the “oxygen of publicity”, on Islamophobia, on Tony Blair’s alleged culpability for just about everything, on the failure of Twitter to provide as accurate a news service as the BBC. On anything, in fact, rather than the truth that there has been a change in what it means to live in a British city, and accordingly in the way in which we respond collectively to danger – real, imagined, or somewhere in between,” he writes.

“It is a melancholy fact of modern life that, just occasionally, panic is the rational option.”

Meanwhile in Myanmar

There’s a new entrant in the debate to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar: China. In an extension Belt and Road Initiative, China is presenting a three-stage plan to resolve the crisis, writes Bob Savic in the South China Morning Post. And it will invest a lot of political and economic capital to resolve the conflict.

“In August 2016, during an official visit by Suu Kyi, the two sides agreed for China to help Myanmar’s economic and social development, as well as undertake measures to support Myanmar’s efforts in achieving domestic peace and national reconciliation through political dialogue,” he writes.

Savic writes that this agreement is seemingly being honoured, and regional co-operation and development is beginning to occupy a bigger role in Chinese foreign policy.

“The belt and road scheme will play a role policymakers may not have envisaged, but it is part of a greater, multidimensional set of relations. These are guided by Beijing’s constantly evolving bilateral strategic partnerships, which may prove essential in enabling China to deal with challenges along the many diverse, historically volatile countries along the belt and road network,” he writes.