Mustafa El-Menshawy seeks out clues in the neighbourhood that last week's attackers called home A de facto curfew seems to have fallen on Shoubra Al-Kheima's Al-Magary (Sewage) Street, where tension oozes in the air, exacerbated by the presence of quite a few plainclothes policemen. The heavy security presence follows the 30 April attacks on tourist targets in downtown Cairo; police said a resident of this district -- Ihab Youssri Yassin -- carried out the attack along with relatives and friends from the neighbourhood. Two hundred local residents were rounded up after the attack, so Yassin's neighbours are naturally media shy. Those who did speak, though, were of mixed opinion on what had occurred. Yassin "was a good, kind man. I don't think he blew himself up to kill tourists," said a bearded neighbour in his 50s who refused to identify the young man as "a terrorist". Twenty-two-year-old student Ahmed Reda remembered that whenever Yassin would see him, he'd urge him to quit smoking and start praying at a nearby mosque. That was all right, until he "started getting aggressive about it", and even dragged Reda to the mosque once by force. Neighbours and relatives said Yassin and his fully veiled sister and fiancée -- who allegedly carried out the second of the two 30 April attacks -- began showing signs of extremism a few years ago. Yassin grew a beard, while his sister and fiancée put on niqab, the full veil, and would often urge complete strangers to do the same. Apparently, at least seven neighbourhood girls heeded the advice, donning the niqab as well, while Yassin established a circuit of like-minded devout friends. Living conditions are harsh on Sewage Street: unemployment is high; and those who do work, earn low wages; a great many of Shoubra Al-Kheima's 1.5 million residents live below the poverty level. Drug addiction and thuggery thrive in the bumpy, garbage- littered alleyways. In the aftermath of the attacks, sociologists were quick to blame the high rates of unemployment and rising poverty for driving ordinary youngsters towards terrorism. "We have long warned of poverty, ignorance, the absence of effective political participation, and the lack of proper religious guidance which provides the perfect soil for breeding extremism," said Nagwa El-Fawwal of the National Centre for Criminal and Social Research. Making matters worse, these conditions have been coupled with a reduced sense of patriotism among new generations, El-Fawwal said. Some analysts have also blamed the attacks on the harsh treatment meted out by the Interior Ministry on people who often have nothing to do with the crimes being investigated. In this case, investigations have shown that Yassin and the others may have planned the attacks as a revenge tactic after one of their relatives died in police custody. According to another neighbour, Fatma Ali, Yassin's sister Negat had at one point volunteered to teach some of the children in the neighbourhood how to be better Muslims. The lessons went well at first. "Negat taught us how to be better Muslims, mainly by following Islam's tolerant teachings. She used to tell us to avoid insults and calling each other names when we fight." Eventually, however, Ali stopped sending her 10-year-old son after Negat called Ali's sister an atheist for wearing a skirt she thought was too short. Neighbours said Yassin, Negat and their younger brother Mohamed -- who was handed over to Egypt this week by Libya -- were on poor terms with their father, who was arrested in 2004 on charges of drug addiction, and who used to regularly beat them. Interviewed extensively by the press after the attacks, the father showed little, if any, sorrow over his children's death and involvement in the attacks -- "they were cruel and got what they deserved," he was quoted as saying. (see p.23)
