Associated Press CAIRO: Egypt s once largest militant group has appealed to the Al-Qaeda terror network to renounce its violent ideology and rally behind the Egyptian Islamic militants conversion to a peaceful struggle. According to a statement posted on the Egyptian group s Web Site, Nageh Ibrahim, a leader and one of the founders of the Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya appealed to Al-Qaeda fighters everywhere to back his group s peaceful initiative from 10 years ago. I m ... appealing to ... brothers in Al-Qaeda organization everywhere, Ibrahim s statement said. I m appealing to you to stop and review your stances, to put your effort, the Jihad (holy war) ... in the right place and time, away from infighting among Muslims ... away from killing civilians, both Muslims and non Muslims. My beloved brothers in Al-Qaeda: Islamic movements revising ideas and views in religion and life is not a sign of weakness but a proof of strength and vitality, he added. The initiative of Ibrahim s group was adopted recently also by Al-Jihad, or Holy War group, an extremist network that was once headed by Ayman Al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden s lieutenant. Ibrahim was released late 2005 after spending 25 years in an Egyptian prison. Al-Jihad and the Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiyya group were both accused of participating in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian physician, jailed for his involvement in the murder, was released in 1984. He left Egypt and helped form Al-Qaeda with bin Laden in the late 1990s. Last year, Al-Zawahri claimed in a videotape statement that Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya had joined Al-Qaeda - the first time Al-Qaeda announced a branch in Egypt, the Arab world s most populous nation. But the Egyptian group promptly denied it. Neither Al-Jihad or Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya have been involved in attacks in Egypt since the 1990s. About 135 lesser Al-Jihad members who spent over a decade in Egyptian prisons have been released over the past two weeks, after signing statements renouncing violence. Despite long opposing a reconsideration of radical views, Al-Jihad s top ideologue, Sayed Imam Abdul-Aziz El-Sherif started a review of Al-Jihad s ideology and concluded it should unequivocally renounce violence. El-Sherif, 57, left Egypt in 1986 to go to Afghanistan and wound up in Yemen where he was arrested in 2001 and handed back in 2004 to Egypt to serve a life sentence. Egypt has never disclosed the number of militants it holds in prison. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Al-Jihad and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya members are still believed to be jailed here, along with smaller groups militants.
