Egyptian experts, in the wake of a fatal attack shorty after midnight on New Year's Eve at an Alexandria church, have accused Al-Qaeda of responsibility, while predicting similar terrorist acts in the future due to security failures.
“Al-Qaeda is the lone perpetrator, for sure," said Hassan Nafaa, political science professor at Cairo University. "No Egyptian authority can do it.”
Nafaa considers the bombing “an act of revenge” and denied speculation concerning Israeli involvement.
“Israel cannot resort to such violent actions, because it fears its relationship with Egypt,” he said.
Expert at Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Amr Hashim Rabeei, concurred, saying, “That this crime was able to be perpetrated points to the fact that the Al-Qaeda warnings that emerged more than 40 days ago have not been dealt with adequately.”
Rabeei expects similar terrorist acts to occur in the light of the current security failure.
But Waheed abdel Meguid, another Ahram expert, ruled out another wave of terrorism in Egypt akin to that of the 1990s.
“Large organizations engaging in violence do not exist any longer in Egypt,” he said.
Abdel Meguid placed the culpability on a group of wayward youth subscribing to the ideology of Al-Qaeda.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
