al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya

Al-jamāʻah al-islāmīyah ("the Islamic Group"; also transliterated El Gama'a El Islamiyya; also called "Islamic Groups" and transliterated Gamaat Islamiya, al Jamaat al Islamiya) is an Egyptian Sunni Islamist movement, and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States,the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The group is dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government and replacing it with an Islamic state; the group has committed to peaceful means following the coup that toppled Mohamed Morsi.

From 1992 to 1998, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya fights an insurgency against the Egyptian government during which at least seven hundred and ninety-six Egyptian policemen and soldiers, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya fighters, and civilians including dozens of tourists are killed.

During the fighting al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya is given support by the governments of Iran and Sudan, as well as from al-Qaeda.

The Egyptian government receives support during this time from the United States.

While the assassination of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 is generally thought to have been carried out by another Islamist group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, some have suggested al-Gamaa was responsible for or at least related to the assassination.

In 2003, the imprisoned leadership of the group renounces bloodshed, and a series of high-ranking members are released, and the group is allowed to resume semi-legal peaceful activities.

Then again some of its members are released in 2011.

The imprisoned cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman  is a spiritual leader of the movement, and the group actively campaigns for his release until his death in 2017.

Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the movement forms a political party, the Building and Development Party, which gains thirteen seats in the 2011-2012 elections to the lower house of the Egyptian Parliament.

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