Feature: Egypt's civil society seeks active role to combat terror

While security solutions have fallen short to put an end to terrorist attacks in Egypt, the country is witnessing a new experience in which the civil society is trying to give a hand.

The Egyptian Center for Combating Terrorism (ECCT) is an example of how the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can play a role in pushing away threats in a society.

Founded in March, the ECCT is not affiliated with any political party or group, said Professor Fatma Gom'a, head of public relations and media department at the ECCT.

"The ECCT was established by the Egyptian people, and will only support them," she told Xinhua.

The professor pointed out that the ECCT is mainly concerned with uncovering the sources of terrorism, documenting its crimes, and raising the youth's awareness to protect them from extremist thoughts.

Terrorist activities mounted in Egypt since Morsi's overthrow and the following security crackdown on his loyalists that left about 1,000 dead and thousands more arrested.

Most of the attacks took place in the northern part of the restive Sinai Peninsula, while some of them extended to the capital Cairo and other provinces across the country.

According to official statistics, nearly 239 army soldiers and officers have been killed and some 398 others were wounded in anti-security attacks mainly in Sinai since August 2013.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asserted on Tuesday in a televised speech that all state bodies are working against terror which target the country's infrastructure and services.

He added that the armed forces in April destroyed 150 terrorist hideouts and arrested 188 wanted terrorists. "About 80 percent of border tunnels in North Sinai Rafah city, bordering the Gaza Strip, have been destroyed."

According to Amnah Nousir, former dean of Faculty of Human Studies at Al Azhar University in Alexandria, "the country could not rely on security in addressing the crisis."

Countering terrorism should depend on intellectual solutions, she told Xinhua. "We should unveil terrorism which works under a religious guise."

General Moataz Radwan, former deputy manager of the national security apparatus and ECCT's vice president, agreed with the religious expert by saying that "security and judiciary sides are not sufficient for addressing the problem."

"There should be organized popular, civilian moves in coordination with the government to solve the problems of ignorance, unemployment, poverty which represent an incubator for extremist thoughts," he added.

"The ECCT aims to activate the civil role not only in Egypt but in the region and whole world," the security expert said.

It has established branches in the Gulf and the U.S. and is working on widening the scale of its activities. Endit