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The Problem of Egyptian Identity: A View from Within

(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Luqman El-Masry - How did Egypt descend from the status of a great civilization to a position of insignificance bordering on irrelevance? Why do we have a strategic partnership with the U.S., though the average Egyptian believes, as do most Arabs, that the U.S. is a vile state that conspires with Israel against them? Why do we have a peace treaty with Israel, but to so much as contemplate visiting that country is considered an act of treason? If Egyptians are to regain the world's respect, we must abandon the pan-Arab identity imposed on us. Why do Egyptians identify as Arab despite factual evidence to the contrary, including recent DNA analysis that shows that we are no more than 20% Arab? Conspiracy theories are rife across the Arab world. Pan-Arabism enforces the notion that the West and Israel are perpetually conspiring against Arabs and that there's not much that can be done about it. The conviction that the country's future is out of our control is nothing more than a convenient excuse for our own failures. Consider, for example, the widespread belief among Egyptians in the anti-Semitic slander The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Instead of working to establish a democratic, healthy community, Egyptians content themselves with the belief that they are hapless victims of a group of sinister "others" who held secret meetings to decide their future along with that of the entire world. The Islamic colonization of Egypt is referred to by Muslims and Egyptians as the Fatah, or the "opening," implying there was no conquest by force but rather a peaceful, miraculous embrace of Islam. They refuse to acknowledge that the Islamization of many countries, including Egypt and all its North African neighbors, was the result of violence. As Egypt gradually gives up its pan-Arabism, the timing is perfect for Israel and the Western nations to design a strategy that enables Egyptians to communicate with their Jewish neighbor and the West without fear of reprisal from the country's unforgiving security apparatus. Luqman El-Masry is the pseudonym of an Egyptian intelligence and political analyst.
2020-03-03 00:00:00
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