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Simply put, Egyptology was by Europeans for Europeans without any inclusion of Egyptians in the study and examination of their own heritage until the 1919 Revolution against British colonialism.įollowing the 1919 Revolution, the newly formed Egyptian national movement sought to Egyptianize Egyptian heritage from British and European colonialism. This ultimately created a discontinuity in Egyptian cultural identity, making ancient Egypt seem like a strange civilization to contemporary Egyptians, who primarily relate to the Islamic and Coptic civilizations. This resulted in a deliberate colonialist conquest to prove the European nature of ancient Egypt, intentionally separating it from the Coptic and Islamic civilizations that followed. In the Western colonial perception, the ancient “pharaonic” Egyptian civilization was part of Europe’s heritage because of “envisioned” racial and cultural links to Rome and Greece. Civilizations are an alternative to the West.”įrance’s invasion of Egypt (1798-1801) and Great Britain’s occupation of Egypt (1882-1956) gave Paris and London a colonialist monopoly over Egyptology and physical control of Egyptian heritage itself. Maçães argues that, “Nation-states are a Western invention, naturally vulnerable to Western influence. The rise of the civilization-state is linked to the ascendancy of Asian powers that challenge the current Western culture and value system that has dominated the world stage since European hegemony. In Bruno Maçães’ view, the civilization-state is organized around culture rather than politics and ought to protect its cultural traditions. The list of civilization-states includes China, India, Russia, and Turkey. Unlike the Westphalian nation-state, the civilization-state refers to nations with a distinct social and political nature that stems from their cultural unity and historical continuity. Unsurprisingly, Egypt’s pharaonic heritage re-emerged as the foundation for Sisi’s Egypt. Sisi spent his first term in office searching for a model that fits his vision for a new Egypt and the republic he is committed to build. In addition to rejecting the Islamist movements, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi didn’t adopt the Nasserist narrative either. Since 2013, the government in Cairo has been an archenemy of political Islam, both in Egypt and around the region, and has been an outspoken critic of the religious establishment for its refusal to modernize Islam and reclaim the faith from terrorist organizations. The new rulers of Egypt inherited a society consumed by political upheaval and social strife, and facing a growing Islamic insurgency in Sinai and the mainland. Since 2013, Egypt has been on a journey to define the country’s emerging post-Mubarak/post-Revolution political structure. The 2011 Tahrir Revolution represented a unique moment in Egypt’s ideological discourse with the rise of many political narratives that have competed to define Egypt - mainly, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nationalists. However, under Hosni Mubarak, Egypt stagnated ideologically for more than three decades. President Gamal Abdel Nasser championed secular Arab nationalism “Pan-Arabism,” while President Anwar Sadat embraced an “Egypt first” discourse. By doing so, Cairo aspires to join the league of other civilization states - including China, Russia, and India - that believe their systems represent civilizations and ought to preserve faith, tradition, and heritage, which, in their view, inherently clashes with Western post-national-and-religious multicultural liberal democracies and the dominant liberal world order.
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The Pharaohs' Golden Parade had a cultural and touristic objective, but it also represents and symbolizes Cairo's new ideological discourse and aims to build a civilization state with its distinct cultural, historical, and political narrative. Last April, Egypt held a unique event, "the Pharaohs' Golden Parade," during which the government moved 22 mummies of kings and queens of Ancient Egypt's New Kingdom from the Egyptian Museum to the recently established National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
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The civilization-state is the prism through which Western capitals should view and understand Egypt’s domestic and foreign policy moves. After decades of soul searching to define itself as a state, Egypt is building its own civilization-state and seeks to join an emerging club of nations that center historical and cultural tradition in their policy and governance structures and reject the West’s cultural dominance.