On 17 November 1997, terrorists affiliated with the Islamic Group massacred 62 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Luxor, one of Egypt’s foremost historical sites. Within a year, much of what remained of the Islamic Group had renounced violence, a rare step for a terrorist group. How did this fast desistance come about? Our case study indicates that Egyptian society experienced a major shift in its relationship with the Islamic Group and extremist Islamism in general. The massacre’s economic and political repercussions permitted a moral claim against terrorism that was unlimited in its application, a claim the government used to its advantage. Sympathy and support for terrorism collapsed after what appeared at first to be a terrorist triumph at Luxor.