In the deadliest attack of its kind in Egypt’s modern history, at least 235 people were killed and around 109 injured after unidentified terrorists carrying explosives and heavy weaponry stormed Al-Rawda mosque in the Northern Sinai city of al-Arish following the conclusion of Friday prayers. Witnesses reported that the assailants set parked vehicles on fire near the mosque to prevent service personell from accessing it. “They were shooting at people as they left the mosque,” a local resident who had relatives at the scene told Reuters. “They were shooting at the ambulances too.” No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Local residents were reported as saying that the mosque regularly attracted followers of Sufism, a mystical branch of Sunni Islam. Despite Sufi Muslims largely being accepted within the Muslims community across Egypt and the world, adherents to certain strains of extremist ideology and militant jihadist groups see them as “unbelievers.” The North Sinai group known as Wilayat Sinai, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in November 2014, beheaded two Sufi clerics in 2016, one of whom was 98 years old, accusing them of “practicing witchcraft”. Following the…
