After an attack left more than 300 people dead during prayer services in a mosque on Friday, Egyptian officials have promised to counter Islamist terrorism with brute force.

ISIS has been battling the Egyptian government in Sinai for years, and the fight has intensified across the region since ISIS’ near defeat in Syria and Iraq. 

But critics of Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi say that his government’s violent rhetoric may be inviting terrorism, rather than countering it. While Sisi outwardly professes pluralism, Egypt’s minorities often complain of no protection. 

Sisi has also been consolidating power, and making appeals to nationalism and gender conformity that have marginalized the country’s LGBT population. 

Scott Long is a human rights activist who has worked in Egypt since 2001 and is the founder of of the LGBT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. Long joins Worldview to discuss Friday’s mosque attack and the prospect of government protection of human rights in Egypt.