Al-Thaqafa al-Misriya wal-Ossouliya al-Deeniya qabla wa baada Yulyu 1952 (The Egyptian Culture and Religious Fundamentalism before and after July 1952); Talaat Radwan; Eddar; Cairo 2010
WATANI International
13 June 2010
Talaat Radwan’s most recent book Al-Thaqafa al-Misriya wal-Ossouliya al-Deeniya qabla wa baada Yulyu 1952 (The Egyptian Culture and Religious Fundamentalism before and after July 1952) constitutes a well-researched study in which the writer digs into the foundations of modern Islamic and Arab nationalism in the Egyptian culture.
In 193 pages that include 12 chapters, Mr Radwan The author exposes mainstream Egyptian culture before and after the 1952 Revolution, and explains how the State-dominated schooling and media were and remain the major elements forming personal inclinations, depicting some historical figures as captivating and others as revolting.
Islamic belonging
The author begins with the ‘renaissance’ movement that came to Egypt in the mid-19th century at the hands of Gamal Eddin al-Irani (the Iranian) who introduced himself and was commonly known as al-Afghani (the Afghan). Egyptian school curricula and the media depicted Afghani as a supreme religious leader and social reformer, and a great national revolutionary. In fact, Afghani led a movement that called for a common Islamic belonging and an Islamic State, thereby practically obliterating the national Egyptian identity that embraces all the children of the nation regardless of religious faith.
Mr Radwan criticises two books by a couple of renowned Egyptian writers of the 20th century, Noaman Ashour and Salah Abdel-Sabbour who venerated Afghani as a reformer. Abdel-Sabbour wrote that Afghani “gave Egypt and Egypt paid him back”, to which Mr Radwan wonders: “Was Afghani’s famous attack against the French Revolution and French philosophers a gift for Egypt? And how did Egyptians benefit from his attack against the natural sciences?
Mr Radwan introduces two other exceptional studies on Afghani. The first is the PhD thesis of Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief of the quarterly Democrateya (Democracy), in which she reveals that Afghani was the instigator of the killing of opponents and the mastermind behind the assassination of the Shah of Iran [Nasr ed-Din] in 1896. The second is an exceptional study by the writer and scholar Louis Awad (1914 – 1990), which exposed Afghani as an adventurer who worked to achieve his personal ambitions of leadership. The study, sustained by several references, proves Afghani deliberately hid his Iranian origin and claimed he was Afghan in order to conceal his Shia origin from a predominantly Sunni society. Awad and his study were viciously attacked by many intellectuals of the time, even though those who attacked him could never refute his claims against Afghani, so resorted to smearing Awad’s personal image and integrity.
Egypt for the Egyptians
Mr Radwan’s study proceeds to the fundamentalist Sheikh Mohamed Rashid Reda, and through to the Muslim Brotherhood movement founded in the 1920s.
The book reveals the role of the colonial powers in pushing the national identity into the background and promoting an overwhelmingly Arab-Islamic identity in its stead. It also shows how some intellectuals who claimed to be liberal embraced Islamic fundamentalism after the Islamic-oriented Free Officers took office following the 1952 Revolution.
Just as State-owned media embraced Islamic culture, it spared no effort to slander the liberal reformer Ahmed Lutfi al-Sayed. With unprecedented nerve, Radwan goes on tearing down the idols of our culture, through analysing the works of so called liberal writers, which appear very close in spirit and content to the works of fundamentalists.
Ahmed Lutfi al-Sayed was the first to adopt the motto “Egypt for the Egyptians”. He described nationalism as the protecting shield for Egypt and coined the 1919 nationalist revolution’s motto of “Religion for God and the Nation for All”. Radwan comments that the 1919 motto was not an empty slogan, but was mirrored in a daily life that endorsed pluralism and acceptance of the other. Such a climate made it difficult for members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to perpetrate their thought which counted non-Muslims as outsiders. That rift, according to Mr Radwan, had to wait till after the 1952 Revolution and the circulation of concepts of political Islam.
Where is the Egyptian identity?
The book is very bold in that it dares defy deeply entrenched ideas and exposes them for the falsity that they are. It is very rich with references that support each claim the author makes. It rings an alarm at how fundamentalist concepts have succeeded in penetrating the thought of many of today’s so-called intellectuals. Al-Thaqafa al-Misriya wal-Ossouliya al-Deeniya qabla wa baada Yulyu 1952 ends its journey by explaining that the state of retardation in which we live today is the result of the absence of the concept of an Egyptian national identity or, in other words, a result of overly celebrating the likes of Afghani to the detriment of the likes of Sayed.
Radwan’s book warrants reading, analysis and discussion, especially in that it broaches a major issue, seldom studied without bias, in modern Egyptian thought.