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Egypt's Rising Tide of Islam
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10857 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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7 / 1986 |
2,084 Words |
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Shireen Hunter
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Since a young Muslim militant assassinated President Anwar al-Sadat in October 1981, the West has been concerned that Egypt, like Iran, might be swept away by a wave of revolutionary Islam. Egypt's latest political and economic problems, the strength of the Islamzing trend, and the growing influence of militant Muslims have intensified these fears.
Indeed, these are justified concerns. Egypt is of enormous geo-political, historical, and cultural importance in the Arab world. Whatever happens in Egypt will affect the rest of the Arab world to a much greater degree than the Iranian revolution ever could.
Certainly Egypt's turn in the direction of revolutionary Islam would negatively impact U.S. - Egyptian relations, given the militants' anti-American feelings, and thus would drastically erode the U.S. position throughout the region. However, it would be a mistake to view Islam as the only challenge to the current political establishment in Egypt and to the continuation of close U.S. - Egyptian relations. An equally grave mistake would be to seek the roots of the Islamic challenge in anything other than Egypt's socioeconomic problems and certain aspects of regional politics, including U.S. policy in the Middle East.
It is no news that Egypt has long-standing and enormous socioeconomic problems ranging from overpopulation and a lack of adequate housing to an inefficient bureaucracy and an economically distorted price system.
During the 1970s these problems were blamed on then-President Abdul Nasser's socialist policies and the war with Israel. Sadat's remedy was economic liberalization and peace.
His economic liberalization policy (Infitah), however, failed to resolve these problems and created some new ones, such as a rise in consumerism, the emergence of a super-rich class, and widening of the socioeconomic gap.
The latter also led to a deepening of social and cultural cleavages, since Egypt's new superrich class adopted values and life-styles totally divorced from Egyptian traditions.
Despite his early promises, Sadat's economic liberalization was not accompanied by political liberalization. In fact, he increasingly concentrated power in his own hands, limited freedom of the press, and curtailed political activity.
Sadat's peace gamble also did not pay the dividends initially expected. Egypt did recover the Sinai oil fields and received American aid, but foreign investment fell far short of expectations. Nor did then much-longed-for prosperity materialize.
Costly Gamble
Politically, the peace gamble cost Egypt dearly. Since Sadat's initial vision of a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict was whittled down to a bilateral Egyptian - Israeli peace treaty, Egypt became ostracized by the Arab world - a very difficult situation emotionally. Sadat also established close relations with the United States. Many Egyptians initially welcomed this, but as frustration with Sadat's policies grew and the U.S. presence in
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