Egyptian political party wants off U.S. terrorist list

In yet another example of the unrealistic ambitions of Egypt’s new political class on the world stage, the Building and Development Party, the political wing of Gama’a al-Islamiyya (GI), is calling on the United States to remove the political party and its parent organization from the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

"Gama’a al-Islamiyya and the Building and Development Party do not consider the West as opponents, but instead advocate for the good of all and embrace all ideas that serve Islam," Building and Development Party spokesman Khaled al-Sharif said in a press conference on Sunday, according to a posting on the party’s Facebook page. Daily News Egypt reports that al-Sharif then went on to "demand" that GI be taken off the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list, and called for the United States to release Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the "Blind Sheikh."

GI was a fixture in Egypt’s collegiate political scene in the 1980s but became internationally infamous for a campaign of terror attacks in the 1990s, which included assassinations and massacres targeting tourists. GI also occasionally worked with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, then headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later merged his organization with al Qaeda and eventually became Osama bin Laden’s successor in that organization. Abdel Rahman had ties to both organizations and is GI’s spiritual leader — he was imprisoned in Egypt in the 1980s for issuing a fatwa sanctioning the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, and is currently serving a life sentence in the United States for helping plan attacks in New York City, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. When the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups was compiled in 1997, GI was an inaugural member.

In 2003, GI reentered the Egyptian political arena, formally renouncing violence in exchange for the release of hundreds of political prisoners. That promise has held, mostly. The change in tactics split the organization, and a violent faction formally joined al Qaeda in 2006. Mainstream members aren’t a bunch of peaceniks, either; GI was responsible for organizing the protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11, 2012, and has threatened to fight for the implementation of sharia law "even if that requires bloodshed."

It’s not unheard of for an organization to work its way off the State Department’s terror list — after a years-long lobbying effort, Iranian dissident group Mujahideen-e-Khalq was delisted last September — but it’s a rare occasion. And though GI and its Building and Development Party aren’t the only politicians in Egypt to call for the release of the Blind Sheikh, it’s certainly not going to win them any fans in Foggy Bottom. It’s also not going to happen.