The Brotherhood's English-language website summarized an interview spokesman Mohamed Morsy gave Al-Jazeera. In it, he cast the attacks as an attempt to undermine Egyptian unity, questioning whether Israel wants to undermine that. "In whose benefit and major interest is it to destabilize Egypt's stability and safety?" he asked. The Press TV report painted an idyllic image of life for Christians in Egypt, but a doctor treating the wounded from last weekend's suicide bombing disagreed. Many Copts, frustrated by a lack of government action to protect them, are thinking of leaving the country, Dalia Nabil told the BBC.
"A lot of us think that this is a plan to make Christians go away from Egypt. The planner is al-Qaida," Nabil said.
The reaction is consistent with radical Islamist behavior in the wake of damaging episodes both large and small. For example:
- In anticipation of indictments from a United Nations tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Hizballah leaders accused Israel of the murder.
- In 2006, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper was a "conspiracy by Zionists who were angry because of the victory of Hamas."
- A pervasive campaign has sought to minimize the Darfur genocide as a Zionist attempt to undermine the Sudanese government.
- An Iranian television documentary depicted the Harry Potter novels and movies as part of a Zionist cultural conspiracy to poison young Muslim minds. "They [Zionists] are indirectly saying: 'join us,'" a documentary source said.
American Islamist leaders are not immune from playing the Zionist card, either.
A coalition of American Islamist groups issued a statement condemning a 2001 raid on a Texas computer business for alleged ties to Hamas. "American Muslims view yesterday's action as just one of a long list of attempts by the pro-Israel lobby to intimidate and silence all those who wish to see Palestinian Muslims and Christians free themselves of a brutal Apartheid-like occupation. We believe the genesis of this raid lies not in Washington, but in Tel Aviv."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Association for Palestine, Muslim Alliance in North America, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Muslim Students Association were among the groups signing on to the statement.
The raids led to the successful prosecution of the company, Infocom, and five brothers who helped run it for laundering money for Hamas chief Musa Abu Marzook and violating sanctions against Libya and Syria.
Zaid Shakir, co-founder of Al-Zaytuna College in California, has repeatedly cast the 1993 World Trade Center bombing "as undertaken by Zionist forces to give proof to their allegations concerning the magnitude of 'Islamic fundamentalist' terrorism, and as a pretext to intensify their anti-Islamic propaganda campaign in the U.S. media."
When a radical online group called RevolutionMuslim threatened the producers of "South Park" for an episode depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit, two CAIR officials hinted that the hand of Zionists was lurking in the shadows.
"Most suspect the group is fraudulent," CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab wrote in a Chicago Tribune column. "Its mysterious leader, born Joseph Cohen, is an American Jew who converted to Islam in 2000 after living in Israel and attending an orthodox rabbinical school there." National spokesman Ibrahim Hooper dismissed the threat, saying "most Muslims suspect they [Revolution Muslim] were set up only to make Muslims look bad."
Zachary Chesser, one of the men behind the threats, entered guilty pleas in October to charges related to the South Park incident and for conspiring to provide material support to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab.