L’aventurier de l’arche perdue

Localization of the counterinsurgency in Sinai: A case study on integrating local population into counterinsurgency combat operations in Sinai

“…Due to the state policies in the peninsula, the Bedouins of Sinai perceive their culture and identity as distinct from those of other Egyptians. Interestingly, local Bedouins refer to newcomers from the valley as “Egyptians,” as though they were foreign settlers threatening their existence (Pelham, 2012, p. 3). Görmüş (2019) argues that “the socio‐economic and political exclusion of the Bedouins reinforced spatially located inequalities and empowered a space of resistance in‐between border space in the northern Sinai” (p. 16).…”

“…Therefore, Salafi Jihadism appeared as an ideology to express grievances more than an authentic creed. Salafi Jihadism does not appear to be a genuine ideology in Sinai, as Sufi Islam in Sinai has extendive historical origins (Pelham, 2012, p. 14). However, Salafi Jihadism provided a new generation of rebels with the appropriate armed insurgency framework and sufficient ideological cover for this approach.…”

“…Salafi Jihadism managed to reintroduce itself as a dominant ideology, attracting many young people as an assertive group that could maintain order and channel the outrage against the Egyptian state. In an interview by Pelham (2012) a Bedouin worker stated, “Young people are fighting with the militants. They are proliferating because people think they are making progress.…”