Egyptian state newspaper pushes ISIS conspiracy theory

Noha Al-Sharnoubi, who writes for the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, says ISIS attacks carried out in order to justify "the occupation and devastation of the Middle East."

ISIS TERRORISTS pose on a Libyan beach in February 2015 with 21 captured Egyptian Christians they are about to behead (photo credit: REUTERS)
ISIS TERRORISTS pose on a Libyan beach in February 2015 with 21 captured Egyptian Christians they are about to behead
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A columnist for Egypt's official state media has implied that the September 11 attacks and recent terrorist attacks in Europe were not carried out by Islamist terrorists, but rather they were the work of Western intelligence agencies.
Noha Al-Sharnoubi, who writes for the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, said that the attacks were carried out in order to justify "the occupation and devastation of the Middle East by the West and the persecution of Muslims in Europe," MEMRI reported.
"I don't know who [the Americans] are fooling, us or themselves. What terror are they talking about and associating with Islam or even with extremist Muslims or people claiming to be Muslims?" she wrote.
Al-Sharnoubi wondered if "[Perhaps Western] intelligence elements are behind the attacks and the bombings, and later Muslim citizens are arrested and killed and simply accused of perpetrating [the attacks] in order to justify what is happening in the Arab countries in the name of the war on terror."
She suggested as well that ISIS operatives in the group's propaganda videos were in fact western actors.
"Do you remember, as I do, the size and the appearance of the alleged ISIS members in that video that showed them butchering an alleged group of Egyptian Christians in Libya? Is it not strange that all the ISIS [fighters] were equally tall, had the same white [skin], and wore identical expensive foreign[-made] watches?" Al-Sharnoubi wrote.