Det var høyst sannsynlig lokale krefter som sto bak bombene på feriestedet Dahab ved Rødehavet. Bedouin-kulturen er blitt ødelagt og de unge vender seg mot radikal islam, skriver Michael Slackmann i Nytimes.

Han har besøkt El Arish som ligger på den nordlige kysten av Sinai, ut mot Middelahvet. Det er en nedslående historie: om en sentralmakt som bryr seg lite eller ingenting om befolkningen, og betrakter forholdet kun ut fra en sikkerhetsvurdering. Som har undergravd lokale autoriteter, ved å gjøre sheiken til myndighetenes forlengede arm, og imamen likeså. Dermed vender de unge seg andre steder for inspirasjon. De har fått det via internett og satellitt-tv, og bokpakker fra Saudi-Arabia.

Arbeidsledigheten er på 92 prosent. Det finnes kun sesongarbeid til 2 dollar dagen. Hatet mot myndighetene og et diffust hat mot utenverdenen, gjør at terroristene blir sett på med en stilltiende beundring.

På mange måter er det mer skummelt hvis reportasjen har rett og det er lokale menn som står bak. De har funnet ammunisjon i ørkenen fra tidligere kriger, og lager primitive, men dødelige bomber på små verksteder.

disillusionment and hostility toward national governments move many young people to adopt Islam as an identity, supplanting nationality or ethnicity. It also underscores a challenge facing many Arab countries where local customs and heritage are being abandoned by young people who instead adopt the dress, customs and behavior of conservative Islam.

In these ways, this northeast corner of the Sinai serves as a microcosm of the forces pulling at the strings of authoritarian governments all over the region, which have maintained power by relying primarily on security services. From Syria to Jordan, from Morocco to Algeria, officials have struggled to manage these trends by simultaneously trying to appease and control the rise in religious feelings.
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In the jumble of crumbling public housing clumped along unpaved, sandy lots, there is a burning resentment of the central government, in particular the security services, which have made mass arrests through the region, and there is a conviction that the people here have been ignored for too long. People are furious that they must use salt water to brush their teeth, wash their clothes and cook with because that is what comes out of their taps at home.

«We now feel like the Egyptian government is an occupation government,» said Emad Bullock, 43, an engineer and carpet merchant. «It is hard to look at this and accept it as our national government.»

Like the rest of the Middle East, this area has been buffeted by a huge population of young people with no work and by anger over the Iraq war. El Arish is just 30 miles from the border with the Gaza Strip, and its youth, once isolated, see the world via satellite television and the Internet.

The animosity in El Arish is so deep that some people here say they admire the bombers. Some say they are resisting the government, others see them as bringing the misery of Bedouin lives home to foreigners who come on carefree vacations.

«Because of the security pressure here people feel proud,» said Khalid Arafat, a local tribal leader. «They think most of those killed were Jews and foreigners.»
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«Bit by bit, more people are becoming religious extremists,» said Mahmoud al-Sawaraka, 49, a leader of one of the region’s largest tribes. «Late in the 1980’s it really started and it is mostly young people.»

Out of Desert Poverty, a Caldron of Rage in the Sinai