From Sinai to Brussels: Condemned Terrorist Attacks Intensify State Terrorism, Right-Wing Movements, and Racism

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

A new wave of terrorist attacks has struck Europe—this time in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. On Tuesday, March 22, terrorist bombings shook Brussels Airport and a metro station in the European Quarter, killing at least 34 people and injuring 170 others.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, 13 police officers—including 10 conscripts—lost their lives when a mortar shell was fired at the Al-Safa checkpoint on the Ring Road in the Third District of Arish on Sunday, March 20. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State, which appears to be growing in strength and expanding its reach in Sinai.

We categorically reject these criminal operations—both the recurring ones in Sinai and those targeting European cities—because they ultimately lead only to the tightening of the security grip and the regression of mass movements.

In Egypt, repeated attacks in Sinai bolster the power of the people’s primary enemy: the military dictatorship of the counter-revolutionary regime. This regime exploits the specter of terrorism to rally public opinion behind it once again, taking cover under the propaganda of the “war on terror” to justify its relentless crackdown on activists, workers, and students. It silences opposition under the slogan “no voice is louder than the voice of battle,” a reality Egypt has endured for over two years.

These attacks provide the military dictatorship with a powerful justification to continue its use of security forces for repression, mass arrests, and torture. This comes at a time when Sisi has lost the trust and support of millions who continue to suffer under his oppressive policies, his security apparatus’s unchecked brutality, and his economic strategies that further strain their living conditions.
But the consequences extend even further. These terrorist operations have a catastrophic impact on the mass movement, which has been steadily developing—albeit slowly—and has real potential to rise. This is particularly true given the deepening economic crisis, which is both inevitable and beyond the reach of any swift solution within Egypt’s corridors of power and decision-making. As the conflict among state institutions intensifies and the June 30 alliance—on which Sisi built his authority and his coup in 2013—continues to fragment, the masses could gain confidence to mobilize seriously against repression and impoverishment.

The core message of these attacks is that the only way to confront Sisi’s regime is through explosive belts and mortar shells rather than through mass struggle—through strikes, protests, and sit-ins. These attacks sow confusion among those fighting for freedom, democracy, and social justice—movements that have only begun to rise again. They instill fear and uncertainty, leading to paralysis and stagnation. As a result, battles against the Civil Service Law, subsidy cuts targeting the poor, and the fight to free detainees are all sidelined, forcing people to rally behind the repressive state in the name of combating terrorism. This is the outcome of terrorist attacks: they obstruct the development of mass movements.
A similar pattern unfolds in Europe. From Paris to Brussels, these attacks serve only to unleash greater repression against activists, migrants, Arabs, and refugees. They exacerbate racist policies, Islamophobia, and hostility toward refugees. Rather than serving the people of Europe, these attacks play into the hands of European states and the fascist, far-right movements whose toxic racist propaganda thrives in the atmosphere of the “war on terror.” Arab and other refugees and migrants in Europe will bear the heaviest cost of these bombings.

However, while we firmly reject these terrorist attacks for blocking the path to the advancement of mass movements, entrenching authoritarianism in Egypt, and fueling racism in Europe, we cannot overlook the primary cause of terrorism in Egypt: the military dictatorship itself. Terrorism does not emerge in a vacuum, nor does it grow out of nowhere—it is a direct product of repression, extrajudicial killings, torture, and systematic brutality. These are the very practices that the Sisi regime has normalized, pushing more people seeking vengeance into the arms of extremist ideologies and terrorist operations. The same holds in Europe, where rampant racism, Islamophobia, and inflammatory rhetoric against refugees—who are fleeing war and death—create the very conditions for extremism to thrive.

The real and greatest terrorist, therefore, is the regime of repression and murder in Egypt, alongside the racist, warmongering authorities in Europe. The fight against terrorism cannot mean standing in the same trench as these oppressive states—states that impose economic deprivation spread racism and hatred among the poor, and wage wars in the Middle East. Instead, it must mean struggling to strengthen and advance all forms of mass movements and their tools in the fight against dictatorship and injustice.