No, it doesn't hurt everyone inside Egypt. I don't think you understand the extent to which Salafist thought has penetrated the Muslim world. It is by definition traditional and also by its very nature inward looking and isolationist. The idea of cutting off Egypt from the influence of the outside world is enormously appealing to such folks.

Indeed, this was the fundamental demand of al qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, for the west to halt contact with the Islamic world and stop influencing it.

Several options:

- Ideological motive: Internet corrupts people, we must protect them from evil influence.

- Political motive: Disrupting infrastructure as an attack on the current rulers.

- Financial motive: Maybe they sell cable repair services or satellite-based internet access.

Or just plain vandalism, which doesn't need a discernable motive.

No way of telling without asking them, I guess.

It could be gang-related - an Internet protection racket.

Not everyone. Just people who need the internet.

There are people who don't actually _care_ all that much if their neighbors can read yahoo mail or not.

The forces of ignorance and oppression always gain by reducing access to information.

Consider the activities we saw and still see in Syria. What government wants the easy exchange of information, namely pictures, when its suffering internal strife?

You could also with countries whose access is limited to one or two points threaten them economically.

Sometimes disruption is enough to achieve a goal, I would definitely not discount domestics.

Might be old media, or their masters.

Israelis