An Egyptian writes to Feenjan about Egypt’s Identity يكتب مصري لفنجان عن الهوية المصرية ליברל מצרי כותב לאתר פנג’אן על הזהות המצרית
Bring back Egyptian Identity
By: Moomen, Alexandria Egypt
Egyptians have decided their identity since the beginning of the 20th century when the political resistance against the British started after the defeat of Egyptian army.
Politicians at this time were divided into two parties, first leaded by Mustafa Kamel viewed that we are part of the Islamic Khalifat & we should seek the help of Istanbul as we are part of its empire & part of the Islamic nation, Second wing which consisted of most Egyptian leaders and the most famous of them was Saad Zaghloul and they raised the slogan “Egypt for Egyptians” considering Ottoman Empire as an occupation force as much as Britain is.
This wing won its battle by the 1919 revolution when the Egyptian identity was endorsed by most Egyptian people & you can say that the Egyptian Nation was born again. Even when the Muslims Brothers appeared in 1928 & started to call again for the Islamic identity they didn’t succeeded cause of the liberal & secular Egyptian environment at this time.
In1952 when Nasser made his coup, Arabism started to have voices in Egypt & become the higher voice in Egypt when Nasser cracked down liberal’s parties then Muslim Brothers.
So for about 20 years Egyptians were convinced that they are Arabs before being Egyptians, affected by Nasser propaganda.
With the defeat of 6days war in 1967 Islamism started to appear again telling Egyptians that we are Muslims not Arabs & not Egyptians. in 1971, Sadat is in power & wants to get rid of Nasser men who are supported by Socialist & Pan-Arab activists he bring out Muslim Brothers from jails & let all Political Islam organizations loose in the society to get rid of socialism.
By 1981 they became fully in control of Egyptian society, attacked Christians & killed Sadat at the end.
Mubarak regime wanted to play the same game of Sadat by playing with all political wings in Egypt & you can see the result now. Weak political secular parties & movements, strong Islamist & strong church that play the role of Christian party. As if he didn’t get the lesson of the 80th or even the lesson from U.S.A. and al-qaeda relationship.
Egyptian identity is lost now Muslim things they belong to the Islamic Nation (Ummah) & Christian are stuck to their church to protect them from the society & they consider it their government not just a church. The NDP is happy as this divided society guaranties for the ruling party a long stay in power even if it’ll lead the country to chaos.
Egypt has an identity crisis that leads to those entire problems between Muslim, Christian, Baha’i (the forgotten minority), Shiite and Quranic.
The first step to bring back all Egyptians together is to bring back the Egyptian Identity the one Egyptian Nation. We are a nation that has a long history, its own culture & its own personality.
Time to say to all those who want to wipe Egyptian Identity enough is enough.
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