wrote my thesis prospectus!
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt renounced violence in the 1970s, but two major organized Islamist militant groups continued to carry out terror attacks for the next three decades. Violence peaked in 1993, when over 1100 people were killed or wounded, and subsequent government crackdowns resulted in the weakening of the major group, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, to the point where they formally acceded to a policy of nonviolence in 1997. As a result, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a different group responsible for fewer attacks, absorbed the remaining militant wing of the transitioning Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and merged with al-Qaeda in 2001 to form what is known as jamaa'at Qa'idat al-Jihad. This thesis will focus on several critical questions. To what extent has the Nonviolence Initiative succeeded in normalizing Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya's political relations? Has this normalization been the cause of the fall of violence in Egypt or is their renunciation of violence a result of a severely deterred capacity to carry out attacks? Does the continuance of terrorist attacks in Egypt on a lesser scale indicate that Egyptian Islamic Jihad has a lesser capacity for violence than Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, or that they have simply taken their operations abroad to regional 'flash points' such as Iraq – and if so, will violence return to Egypt once these areas cease to be attractive targets for terrorist operations? Most importantly, this thesis will attempt to identify the conditions under which a radical militant group can be politically normalized and examine strategic and political lessons that can be taken from the Egyptian experience with terrorism.

That’s right, you have the young gaming with the old(er), white people gaming with black people, men and women, Asian countries gaming with the EU, North Americans gaming with South Americans. Much like world sporting events like the Wolrd Cup, or the Olympics will bring together different nations in friendly competition, (note the recent Asian Cup; Iraq vs. Saudi Arabia, no violence there) we come together. The differences being, we are not divided by our nationalities and we do it 24-7, and on a personal level.
We are a community without borders and without colours, the spirit and diversity of the gaming community is one that should be looked up to, a spirit and diversity other groups should strive toward.