Surviving and expanding
In Tora Reception Prison, 29-year-old Ahmad, not his real name, turned from a young man who liked photography and the Muslim Brotherhood into an outcast and ISIS supporter.
In March 2010, Ahmad was roaming the streets along with young men from the April 6 Movement collecting signatures on the statement of the National Assembly for Change, led by Dr. Mohammad El-Baradei, former vice president of the republic after the January 25 revolution. Ahmad’s activity within the Muslim Brotherhood continued until his arrest in early 2014.
Since then, he has been in a pre-trial detention accused of joining an illegal group, assaulting policemen and armed forces and their facilities, and endangering the safety and security of society using terrorism. He was also accused of joining movements aimed at sabotage, setting a number of policemen and magistrates’ cars and a café on fire between August 2013 and January 2014.
The case was referred to the military judiciary in January 2016, under Law No. 136 of 2014 on the securing and protection of public and vital facilities, which was issued by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in October 2014. The law allowed the prosecution of those who attack state facilities in the military courts. The case has been open for more than five years and reserved since December 2017. At the time of publication there has been no ruling.
Prior to his imprisonment, Ahmad did not hide his membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, and he was an active member. He got injured during the dispersal of Rabe’a Al-Adawiya’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters sit-in by the army and police in August 2013.
According to the expert on the Islamic movements, Dr. Nageh Ibrahim, the spread of Takfiri ideology among the Muslim Brotherhood young men came about because group’ neglected to teach Aqidah (creed). As he said "The group did not care to fortify its members and teach them Aqidah, but rather cared about political mobilization and demonstrations”.
Ahmad, a graduate of the Faculty of Science at the University of Alexandria, turned against the Brotherhood after years of pre-trial detention and loss of hope in getting out of prison, according to a close friend who asked to remain anonymous. The friend said that the repeated renewal of the detention and the length of the trial, close to five years, made Ahmad fancy that he would only get out of prison by force of arms – ISIS arms.
The spread of ISIS ideas inside Tora Prison, is explained by a jihadi leader who was imprisoned there for about a year, and got out in mid 2016. He said, "My presence in Tora Prison coincided with huge operations adopted by Sinai Province, such as bombing the State Security building in Shubra and the Italian Consulate downtown, which contributed to many prisoners pledging allegiance to ISIS convinced that it would survive, expand and come to free them from prison.”
Ahmad's family and friends noticed the change in him, the beard his verbal violence, his talk about the caliphate.
Ibrahim, the expert, said that “Leaving the prisons currently without any effort to rehabilitate the prisoners, makes it a camp for radicalization and Takfir, and it turns occupants into temporary bombs full of malice and hatred against society and authority after they get out.”
Ideological review and alleviation of the prison crush would help stop the spread of extremist ideology – as was the case of the Islamic Group in the 1990s, according to Habib’s opinion, the expert in Islamic groups.
A former prisoner with Ahmed gives a picture of the transformations that took place. "As time passes, with the length of imprisonment, life shifts into sleeping, eating and discussions, and that's where the problems start." He said Muslim Brotherhood leaders usually want to control their young men, but Ahmad was not always obedient, which led to more disputes between the two parties.
Another prisoner, who got out later, remembers Ahmad standing by ISIS pros in prison when there were dispute with the Muslim Brotherhood. "In many situations,” he said, “Ahmad chose ISIS over the Brotherhood, whether in ideological discussions or organizational matters such as eating, co-living and sleeping." Later he left them to accompany those who agreed with his views.
Ahmad saw whoever disagreed with ISIS views, which were now his own, as unbelievers, and he refused to eat, pray and talk with his former imprisoned colleagues from the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a former prisoner, who asked that his name not be used.
Nageh Ibrahim said that to resolve the crisis, "You must give hope to your opponents who don’t hold arms, so they don’t get desperate and die confronting you." He blames the current authority for thinking only of security without trying to "fight ideas with ideas."
The historical leader of the Islamic Group believes that combating radicals and Takfirists starts with dialogue, communication and neutralization, and opening the life horizon.
With gratitude and pride, the founder of the Islamic Group recalls the reviews they made in prison and their abandonment of arms after announcing "Stop the Violence Initiative" in 1997. Nageh was imprisoned for nearly 25 years after his arrest in 1981 in the aftermath of the assassination of President Mohammad Anwar Al-Sadat. He was released in 2005.
He spoke with love about Major General Ahmad Ra’fat, the deputy head of the State Security Service and head of its religious activity. His eyes shine and he looks comfortable saying, "He was sincere and honorable, not an opportunist. He felt our honesty in reviewing and renouncing armed violence, and so he was honest in his promises to us."
Ra’fat turned the prison into an ideological university where discussions were held between leaders of the Islamic Group and its young men, and a large productive workshop was set up to rehabilitate and teach prisoners crafts, according to Nageh who estimated the number of the Group prisoners to about 12,000.
Before his imprisonment, Ahmad did not think beyond demonstrations and attempting to hamper police fduring the dispersal of Brotherhood marches, according to a close friend. However, now he "hopes that Allah will kill whoever battles and fights the state of Islam. He prays that Allah will give him life under the wise Caliphate.”
