An Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Thursday for an attack on a checkpoint in the country’s volatile Sinai Peninsula that killed five policemen.

Islam El-Beheiry made Egyptian headlines as one of the most debated topics related to the religion of Islam in 2015. The story began when the young Islamic researcher presented himself as an innovator of religious speech. On his programme With Islam El-Beheiry challenged the authenticity of the heritage of conservative interpretations of religious texts.

Five years ago, no one would have expected that a terror group would seize a piece of land the size of one third of Iraq, use social media to promote its propaganda, operate hospitals and universities, and run an oil business to fund itself. These are features typically confined to the purview of the state and its infrastructure networks.

With the expansion of religious radicalism, the Egyptian state has increasingly articulated itself as a sovereign power that can mitigate extremist proliferation, even at the cost of human rights. Religious discourse was one of the first issues addressed by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi when he assumed power in June 2014.

The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State's relentless destruction of ancient cultural sites.

Sharqiya prosecutors detained 15 Muslim Brotherhood members for 15 days pending investigation over charges of joining a banned group, inciting violence and for calling for protests on the January 25 Revolution anniversary.

The Court of Cassation on Saturday set Feb. 3 for an appeal hearing on mass death sentences handed down to 149 defendants for storming Kerdasa police station, Youm7 reported.

In June 1981, Cairo’s Al-Zawiya Al-Hamra neighbourhood witnessed one of the most violent incidents of sectarian strife, in which hundreds were killed and injured. A personal dispute on the ownership of a land was the initial cause of the violent clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians.

Egypt's administrative court has upheld a decision by Cairo University that prohibits staff members from wearing the Niqab, the full face veil.

The Egyptian Administrative Court annulled on Tuesday a former media gag order imposed on a case referred to in the Egyptian media as the “the 2012 presidential elections fraud case.”

MP Mohamed Abu Hamed requested that religious lessons be banned in private homes and villas during the parliament's Tuesday session.

The United States and it allies staged two dozen strikes against the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq on Monday, the Combined Joint Task Force overseeing the operations said in a statement.

A police officer, two conscripts and two civilians were injured Tuesday as a bomb went off in North Sinai's capital city Arish, the interior ministry said.

Two Egyptian courts acquitted Tuesday 29 alleged Muslim Brotherhood supporters charged with inciting violence.

Muslim women who fail to learn English to a high enough standard could face deportation from Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday.

The United States and its allies conducted a total of 35 air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement early on Monday.

As the fifth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution approaches, the Ministry of Interior is extending its security measures throughout country, planning for “Police Day celebrations”, while the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated entities are mobilising their supporters to protest.

Egyptian security forces announced over the weekend that they were continuing to investigate the shooting incident last Thursday in Cairo, in which gunmen opened fire on Israeli tourists as they boarded a bus in Cairo. There were no casualties in the shooting, which took place at the Three Pyramids Hotel, on a road leading to the Giza pyramids southwest of the capital. The tourists boarding the bus were Israeli Arabs.

Muslim organisations have called for David Cameron to make public a wide-ranging government report into the actions of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, which accused a number of high profile British charities and think-tanks of having links to the movement.

A total of 21 Egyptian nationals, who had been abducted by an armed group in Libya, were released Saturday evening, their relatives told Youm7.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Saturday Burkina Faso hotel attack that killed at least 23 people.