1. Horrific violence in Egypt today: At least 235 people were killed at a Sufi mosque, one of the worst single-day death tolls that I can remember. No group has claimed responsibility for the violence as yet but the Sinai is one of ISIS’ areas of operation post-gazette.com/news/world/201…
2. According to my colleague @declanwalsh, the attackers planted bombs inside the Sufi mosque, then gunned down worshippers as they ran out. They waited for emergency personnel to come, before hitting ambulances. Both ISIS and al-Qaeda have done this 1-2 style of attack before 
3. But the target they chose - a Sufi mosque - is a tactic that is associated with ISIS. Back to the days of the Iraq war, ISIS and its predecessor quarreled with al-Qaeda over the legality of targetting Shia and Sufi sites. The thing to know is ISIS doesn’t consider them Muslims
4. In November 2016, ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Sufi shrine in Baluchistan in Pakistan, which killed over 50 people. In their claim, ISIS referred to the dead as “mushirkin.” That means “polytheists.”
5. ISIS accuses Sufis of practicing the faith in a way which venerates idols, rather than God. For example, Sufis - who practice a tolerant and mystical form of Islam - consider the tombs of saints to be sacred. ISIS insults them, calling them “grave worshippers”
6. Al-Qaeda and other hardline Salafi Muslim groups also hold this view of Sunnis. But al-Qaeda central has generally discouraged physical attacks on Shias and Sufis (though there are exceptions.)
7. For example, when al-Qaeda took over northern Mali in 2012, they bulldozed the tombs of Sufi saints in Timbuktu, which were UNESCO World Heritage sites, in a spectacle that deeply insulted the local population. But they stopped short of physical violence against Sufis:
8. Documents I recovered in al-Qaeda safehouses there showed that the group’s leadership was ticked off by the destruction of Sufi sites & reprimanded the group in Mali. The leaders saw it as counterproductive & as something that caused an erosion of popular support for al-Qaeda
9. That said, al-Qaeda has become more extreme in its attempt to compete with ISIS, and a new al-Qaeda-linked group was recently announced in the Sinai. Waiting to see which (if any) group claims this display of cruelty
