Al-Jihad or "Tanzim al-Jihad" was formed in 1980 from the merger of two clusters of Islamist groups: a
Cairo branch, under
Mohammed Abdul-Salam Farag, and a Saidi (Upper Egypt) branch under Karam Zuhdi. Farag wrote the 1980 book
al-Faridah al-Ghaiba (The Neglected Obligation), setting forth the standards for EIJ, of which 500 copies were printed. After the assassination of Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian government succeeded in rounding up the membership of Tanzim al-Jihad, but "was rather lenient in the ensuing trial". In prison, the Cairenes and Saidis reverted into two factions; the Cairo militants later becoming the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and the Saidis later forming the
al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, or the Islamic Group. According to Zawahiri, the EIJ was "different from the
Takfir wal Hijra group as we do not consider people infidels because of their sins. And we are different from the
Muslim Brotherhood because sometimes they do not oppose the government". The leader of the Cairo militants was
Abbud al-Zumar, "a onetime army intelligence officer serving a life sentence for his part in the plot to kill Sadat". This faction, the Islamic Jihad, "was small and tightly disciplined". Most of the middle-rank members were discharged from prison after only three years and fled to
Pakistan and
Afghanistan to help the mujahideen there and escape persecution at home.
Pakistan and Afghanistan In the mid-1980s, in
Peshawar (
Pakistan), the militants reconstituted themselves as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, "with very loose ties to their nominal imprisoned leader,
Abbud al-Zumar". A physician by the name of
Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif or "Dr. Fadl" was head of EIJ for some time, although eventually,
Ayman al-Zawahiri, "whose leadership style was autocratic," would take over. During this time EIJ became more extreme, with, for example, Dr. Fadl emphasizing the importance of
takfir and execution of apostates, which he argued should include those who registered to vote, since this was a violation of God's sovereignty over governance. It was also at this time that some saw "the Egyptians" of the EIJ begin to exert an influence on
Osama bin Laden, who at the time was known as a wealthy and well-connected fundraiser for the
jihad in Afghanistan. Egyptian filmmaker Essam Deraz, "bin Laden's first biographer," met bin Laden in the "Lion's Den" training camp in Afghanistan and complained that the Egyptians "formed a barrier" around bin Laden and "whenever he tried to speak confidentially to bin Laden, the Egyptians would surround the Saudi and drag him into another room". One of those who complained of being elbowed aside was a former mentor of bin Laden
Abdullah Azzam, the original exponent and organizer of global jihad on behalf of the Afghan mujahideen. In 1991, EIJ broke with al-Zumur and al-Zawahiri took control of the leadership. At this point,
Marc Sageman (a former foreign service officer who was based in Islamabad from 1987 to 1989), says "the EIJ became a free-floating network without any real ties to its original society or to its surrounding society".
Sudan al-Jihad (EIJ) had a blind-cell structure, meaning members in one group did not know the identities or activities of those in another so that if one member were captured they would not be able to endanger the whole organization. However, Egyptian authorities captured the membership director of EIJ, the one member who had all the other member's names. The database in his computer listed every member's address, aliases, and potential hideouts. Al-Jihad leader al-Zawahiri bitterly lamented "the government newspapers" elation over “the arrest of 800 members of the al-Jihad group without a single shot being fired". In August 1993, al-Jihad unsuccessfully attempted to kill the Egyptian Interior Minister,
Hassan Al Alfi, who was leading a crackdown on Islamic militants. A bomb-laden motorcycle exploded next to the minister's car, fatally wounding Nazih Nushi Rashed and killing Tarek Abdel-Nabi (Dia al-Deen) instantly. The attack marked the first time
Sunni Islamists had made use of
suicide in terrorism, a technique made famous by
Shia Hezbollah in
Lebanon. It is "likely that the notion of suicide bombing" was inspired by Hezbollah as al-Zawahiri had been to
Iran to raise money, and had sent his underling
Ali Mohamed, "among others, to Lebanon to train with Hezbollah". A few months later in November, al-Jihad made another bombing attempt, this time to kill Egypt's prime minister,
Atef Sidqi. The car bomb exploded close to a girls' school in
Cairo as the minister was driven past. The minister, protected by his armored car, was not hurt, but the explosion injured 21 people and killed a young schoolgirl, Shayma Abdel-Halim. Unfortunately for al-Jihad this bombing was preceded by two years of terror by a larger terror group (
al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya) that had killed 240, and the patience of the Egyptian public had run short. "Little Shayma's death captured people's emotions as nothing else had" and "when her coffin was borne through the streets of Cairo, people cried, 'Terrorism is the enemy of God!'" A harsh police crackdown followed and 280 EIJ members were arrested, with 6 eventually given a death sentence. EIJ's longtime association with
al-Qaeda became closer at this time when "most" of its members were reported to have gone "on the al-Qaeda payroll". The leader of EIJ hoped this would be a temporary measure but later confided to one of this chief assistants that joining with
bin Laden had been "the only solution to keeping the Jihad organization abroad alive."
Mubarak assassination attempt In June 1995, another failed assassination attempt caused yet a greater setback. Operating from its exile base in Sudan, EIJ joined forces with the Egyptian
al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and
Sudanese intelligence in an attempt to kill Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak while he was in
Ethiopia for a conference of the
Organization of African Unity.
Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif has claimed that Zawahiri was an agent for Sudanese intelligence services. The leader of the plot was "
Mustafa Hamza, a senior Egyptian member of the
Al-Qaeda and commander to the military branch of the Islamic Group". The plotters had been planning the attack for more than a year and even married local women in Ethiopia. They received assistance from
Sudanese intelligence services, which smuggled weapons into their embassy in Ethiopia. Their hope was to decapitate the Egyptian government thereby eliminating the "iron grip" of the
state security services, and creating a power vacuum which Islamists could then fill. Unfortunately for this plan, the attack was foiled by a malfunctioning grenade launcher and Mubarak’s bulletproof limousine. ====Expulsion from
Sudan==== Back in
Egypt, Mubarak launched a ruthless campaign to crush anyone involved in Islamist terrorism, When the Sudanese found out about the executions in its jurisdiction, al-Zawahiri and the rest of EIJ were ordered to leave the Sudan.
bin Laden was also weakened by this failed operation. The core of his
al-Qaeda group was made up of members of Islamic Jihad. Because of Sudan's collaboration in the plot, the
United Nations voted to impose sanction on the country. To rehabilitate itself in the international community, the Sudanese government pressured bin Laden to leave the country. Bin Laden and many EIJ returned to war-torn Afghanistan having lost many members and almost all of bin Laden's assets. On November 19, 1995, EIJ
bombed the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad killing 16 and wounding 60. The attack served as a prototype for future attacks by its sister organization al-Qaeda, such as the
1998 bombings of American embassies in Africa.
Albania According to journalist Lawrence Wright, based on testimony given at the trial of the
Albanian cell members in the late 1990s or early 2000s, EIJ membership had dwindled to 40 members outside Egypt, and none at all inside the country where "the movement had been eradicated". In 1998, three al-Jihad members were arrested in
Albania, and the United States intervened to ensure they were extradited to Egypt to face charges. In Afghanistan Zawahiri wrote the 1998 fatwa for the "International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders," calling for the killing of Americans and their allies, both civilian and military, which was signed by representatives of several jihadi organizations, including EIJ. In August 1998,
Issam Abdel-Tawab was extradited to Egypt from Bulgaria. Dissent among EIJ members to this change of direction and abandonment of the taking over Egypt as the group's primary goal was so strong that "in the end, Zawahiri pledged to resign if the members failed to endorse his actions. The organization was in such disarray because of arrests and defections, and so close to bankruptcy, that the only choice was to follow Zawahiri or abandon al-Jihad". One of those who did abandon al-Jihad was Zawahiri's own brother
Muhammed, the military commander of EIJ.
Merger with al-Qaeda In June 2001,
Al-Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad merged into an entity formally called jamaa'at Qa'idat al-Jihad, However,
Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif has claimed that only 9 people from the organization, including Zawahiri, actually joined Al-Qaeda. Consequently, it is often considered synonymous with al-Qaeda (for example, by the US Treasury Department), although some refer to it as a separate organization with al-Zawahiri as its leader and global jihad's main ideologist. ==Activities==