Al-Sisi calls for counter-terror collaboration

In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed the importance of regional and international co-operation in combating terrorism, which he described as "the plague of our age".

In his September 20th address to the 71st session of the General Assembly, al-Sisi proposed that in addition to military efforts, steps to uproot terrorism need to include shutting down websites and channels that promote extremist ideology.

He also stressed the need to end regional conflicts by political means.

"While the Middle East continues to be embroiled in bloody conflicts, Egypt has managed to preserve its stability in the midst of a highly unstable region, thanks to the resilience of its institutions and awareness of its people," he said.

"Egypt will continue to be an anchor of stability in the Middle East, sparing no efforts in fulfilling its natural role to restore security and stability in the region," he added.

Al-Sisi spoke at length about the issue of terrorism, Cairo University professor of international relations Muhyuddin Ghanem told Al-Mashareq.

The Egyptian president made it clear that "terrorism is the most serious threat to peace and security in the world" and warned that religion is being used as a cover for acts of terrorism, Ghanem said.

Al-Sisi stressed the need for international and regional co-operation to stem the terrorist threat and counter extremist ideologies, he added.

The president also called on the international community to prevent extremist groups "from taking advantage of technological and informational advances that represent their main means of disseminating terrorist ideas", Ghanem said.

Tolerance and co-existence must form a bulwark against extremism, al-Sisi added.

Uprooting terrorism

"Egypt is making a strong and steady comeback on a wide scale to international forums," said Egyptian Ambassador Hussain al-Haridi, former assistant foreign minister.

While in the past Egypt’s speeches were delivered by Egypt’s envoy to the UN or its Ambassador to the US, he told Al-Mashareq, al-Sisi undertook the task himself this time as a way of highlighting the importance of current events.

"Placing the focus on terrorism and the need to dry up its ideological sources is of utmost importance given the threat of terrorism that looms over the world," al-Haridi said.

Egypt has begun this work on the home front through measures such as updating religious discourse and monitoring Friday sermons so pulpits are not exploited by extremists seeking to propagate distorted ideology, he said.

The issue of terrorism and how to eradicate it "is not only a top global priority, but also a top priority of Egypt’s domestic politics", said political researcher Abdul Nabi Bakkar, a professor at Al-Azhar University’s faculty of sharia and law.

Egypt is engaged in a military operation against extremist groups operating in Sinai and is exerting great efforts to dry up domestic ideological wellsprings of extremism and prosecute those arrested on terrorism charges, he said.

The president is paying attention to all the means through which terrorism can spread, he said, noting parliament’s approval of the Cyber Crime Law and other government efforts to curb criminal and extremist groups and their ideology.