May Allah have mercy on those murdered in Sinai and accept them as shaheed, being engaged in His worship whilst they were killed. May He protect the people in Sinai and elsewhere from ongoing bloodshed and insecurity – whether from militants or from Sisi and his like (who, it must not be forgotten, killed far more people in the massacre in Rabaa in 2013).

Such events have more significance than the immediate human cost, which is immense. They stand as points where things often change dramatically for the worse – and as examples of how badly destablised is the Muslim world today by external influence, particularly from the US.

Locally, everybody has known Sinai (once a popular destination for travellers and visitors) has been out of bounds due to security problems for several years. Yet, the world has only just become aware of the situation after the attacks yesterday).

The response to horrific massacre in Sinai reminds me of responses to similar atrocities in Pakistan after the war in Afghanistan 2001 – but also in some ways in Iraq after 2003 occupation.

The targeting of particular communities – whether it is Sufis in Egypt (and this is a matter of speculation at the time I am writing), the Shia in Pakistan & Iraq, Sunnis in Iraq by the regime or Christians in Egypt & Pakistan & Iraq – stokes fear, mistrust, hatred and division. It also provokes the rhetoric of outrage from around the world and calls to ‘do something’.

Such calls to do ‘something’ in strategically important regions like Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan can include a full blown international response – or a regional response by neighbouring countries who are willing to follow a US agenda. Note how we do not see any such response for the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, where such a response would not serve these strategic objectives.

Furthermore, the conflicts between the state and militants in these places has an impact on civilian populations which can cause resentment against the state, so affecting its operations. In Pakistan this was in FATA. In Egypt, this has been in Sinai. In Iraq, it was around Mosul, Fallujah etc in the so-called Sunni regions.

In Pakistan there were huge amounts of civilian casualties, stoking local resentment of the state and discomfort within the armed forces and rest of the country – to the extent that it was hard to maintain public opinion for the operations. But the sudden appearance of the TTP, targeting civilians and security personnel around the rest of Pakistan, provided a justification for continued intervention and a much needed public opinion. In both places there is evidence of the hand of foreign agencies in some of the worst attacks and incidents.

In Pakistan and Iraq, it was not ‘religious ideology’ but increasing heavy-handedness and civilians casualties by the state became a recruiting ground for militants.

The result of undertaking such policies – all of which are within the US strategy for ‘AfPak’, Iraq, Egpyt, Libya ( where the Egyptian regime cooperates to fuel the chaos from the US-backed Hafter regime in Tobruk) etc – has been the destablisation of whole countries, countless deaths and a massive cost to all the people – in terms of security and economically.

So I repeat my comment at the beginning: Such events have more significance than the immediate human cost, which is immense. They stand as points where things often change dramatically for the worse. And they stand as illustations of how whole regions can be destabilised for the benefit of capitalist powers.

And may Allah have mercy on those murdered in Sinai and accept them as shaheed, being engaged in His worship whilst they were killed. May He protect the people in Sinai and elsewhere from ongoing bloodshed and insecurity – whether from militants, Sisi and his like – or foreign agencies.

Because unless the Muslim world is free of this foreign interference, and establishes a government under a Khilafah Rashidah that would remove such influence – there is no hope of peace and security for the people.

Security policies from Sisi, under the auspicies of Washington, will only create more bloodshed, chaos and mistrust – because it is their alliances and interference that cause fitna and corruption on the earth.

Allah SWT says:

وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ إِلَّا تَفْعَلُوهُ تَكُن فِتْنَةٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَفَسَادٌ كَبِيرٌ

And those who disbelieved are allies of one another. If you do not do so (i.e. become allies of one another) there will be fitnah on earth and great corruption. [Al-Anfal: 73]

Dr Abdul Wahid is currently the Chairman of the UK-Executive Committee of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain. He has been published on the websites of Foreign Affairs, Open Democracy, the Times Higher Educational Supplement and Prospect Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @AbdulWahidHT