At certain stages particularly before the total collapse of military authoritarian regimes some governments resort to a cunning trick: manufacturing "ISIS" to justify their atrocities, from chemical bombings to mass executions. This was the playbook of the butcher Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
The book Black Power: The Islamic State and the Strategists of Terror by German journalist Christoph Reuter is a foundational reference for understanding the rise of ISIS. Published in 2015, it won the German Journalism Award and was based on field investigations in Iraq and Syria for Der Spiegel. Reuter demonstrates that ISIS was, in essence, an intelligence alliance between former Baathist officers from Saddam Hussein's regime and jihadist leaders a fusion he called "the dark coalition."
The book reports that 27 of the top commanders in the organization were former officers in Saddam's regime, and that ISIS relied more on their intelligence expertise than on any religious doctrine. This thesis was later reinforced by The New York Times' in-depth investigation, The ISIS Files, which revealed that the organization's core was a Baathist bureaucracy masked in jihadist slogans, aiming to regain control over Iraq.
In Syria, Reuters also documented how Assad's intelligence services helped establish the group from within the prisons and later facilitated its spread providing a pretext for the regime's war against its own people and to discredit the revolution.
On May 22, I appeared as a guest on Israeli journalist Zvi Yehezkeli's show Arabistim ("Pay Attention, Arabs!") on i24NEWS, to discuss the relationship between Arab regimes and terrorist groups. In the final minute of the interview, I shared confirmed information about Egyptian state support for ISIS elements. I said, verbatim:
"Why do Egyptian security agencies rent apartments for ISIS members in Qassasin and 10th of Ramadan? Why are they being provided with housing and food? I'm asking this question, and I expect a clear answer."
This statement sparked a significant reaction. Many reached out asking for further details. This article is my response to those questions.
One of my trusted sources from the heart of Sinai told me:
"Yes, they gave ISIS members furnished apartments, monthly salaries, and immunity. Meanwhile, we are displaced, we've lost our farmlands, and we receive no compensation. We're humiliated at military checkpoints this is pushing some of the youth to join ISIS, and that's exactly what happened.
ISIS in those areas has become a kind of delayed hatchery activated whenever politically or strategically needed. And indeed, a significant number of Salafists and jihadists have already joined its ranks."That was the end of his statement.
All of them are essentially like human time bombs the timing codes and detonation triggers are exclusively owned by the Egyptian regime, which, under the banner of "fighting terrorism in Sinai," has committed full-scale crimes against people, nature, and infrastructure. These crimes have been documented by numerous human rights organizations around the world. I hope the day will come soon when these files are finally opened.
Geographically, the city of Qassasin is only about 75 km from Sinai less than a 90-minute drive making it an ideal logistical hub or covert transit point. Meanwhile, 10th of Ramadan is an industrial city 120 km from northern Sinai, offering a densely populated cover for concealment and integration.
The Egyptian regime exploits the so-called "war on terror" to secure international political, economic, and military support, while relentlessly cracking down at home shutting down freedoms, suffocating civil society, and imprisoning thousands of secular activists under fabricated charges like "belonging to terrorist groups" a grotesque paradox no rational observer can ignore.
Today, terrorism charges in Egypt have become a pliable label affixed to any critic or opponent, regardless of their ideology while at the same time, the regime itself is accelerating the ISIS-ification of society.
In this context, attention must be paid to the "Kuttab" (Qur'an school) initiative launched by the Ministry of Religious Endowments in late December 2024, aiming to establish thousands of "modern Kuttabs" inside mosques across the provinces..
What appears to be an innocent religious education initiative is in fact an institutionalized ideological project designed to raise generations saturated with traditional radical thinking, without intellectual oversight or enlightened curricula. It entrenches a collective obedience model the very foundation that groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS have long relied upon.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly confirmed this openly just days ago, stating:
"The Kuttabs will play an important role in shaping Egyptian awareness and character, under President Sisi's directives."
This orientation cannot be separated from the stance of the official religious establishment
especially Al-Azhar which exposed its true face following the massacres of October 7, 2023. It failed to condemn the atrocities committed by Hamas against civilians, and instead embraced a traditional discourse glorifying armed jihad and demonizing the West deepening the civilizational chasm between Egypt and the postmodern world.
Simultaneously, Egypt is increasingly entrenching itself in an authoritarian global alliance led by Russia, China, Turkey, and Qatar one that suppresses freedoms, rejects liberal values, and weaponizes political Islam as needed, whether to justify domestic repression or distract from catastrophic external files.
The penetration of ISIS into Egypt sponsored by the state's own security apparatus is not a baseless accusation, but rather a ticking time bomb threatening the entire region. It reveals the true face of a regime that survives by engineering terror.
Mohamed Saad Khiralla is a political analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs and Islamist movements, an opinion writer and member of PEN Sweden.
