"Islamist groups planned to attack Egyptian synagogues"

Elihayu HaNavi synagogue in Alexandria

El Badil reports that members of "Ansar al Bayt al Maqdis", one of the Sinai Islamist groups fighting in Egypt, have admitted to plotting to blow up synagogues in Cairo and Alexandria.

The report says that they were doing surveillance of the spots.

It further quoted security sources as saying that they would not allow any such attacks and citizens should not worry.

I have not seen this verified anywhere else in Egyptian media.

It is hard to know what to believe, as the hatred of much of Egyptian media towards Islamists has caused them to make up stories in the past. It is quite possible that they want to ensure that the Jewish world is sympathetic towards Egypt's crackdown on civil and human rights in going after Islamists. On the other hand, the idea that Islamists want to attack synagogues is also quite believable.

None of Egypt's synagogues have any Jewish services anymore, and they are mostly preserved as part of Egyptian heritage.