Autocracy is not the motivator behind terrorism in Egypt unlike some claim, Steven A. Cook argues in The Atlantic. There is a straightforward reason behind attacks similar to the one on Rawda mosque, he says: “The perpetrators are adherents of a worldview that views violence as the principal means of purifying what they believe to be un-Islamic societies.” Cook says there is tendency among some Egypt observers to “make matters more complicated than they need be” and they blamed the attack on President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s policies, which is “odd,” he notes. “From the perspective of extremism’s theoreticians, both democratic and authoritarian political systems are equally illegitimate for no reason other than they place human made laws above those handed down by God… The most one could say is that some alienated young people, primarily men, may find the ideological and theological call from extremist groups appealing. That does not explain the violence, however. Rather it merely accounts for a context in which violent organizations find people who are willing to spill blood,” he writes.

… Cook’s piece comes as Brian Dooley writes in the Huffington Post that the treatment of detainees in Egyptian jails is fueling support for Daesh. “A human rights activist who spent some time in jail told me how vulnerable prisoners are ‘easy prey for ISIS. The older guys are sort of immune to what ISIS says, but for the younger ones it’s a powerful appeal,’ he said… Ending abuse in Egypt’s prisons won’t in itself defeat ISIS but it would help,” Dooley says.