Egyptian Cultural - Term Paper Example

Ancient Egyptians relied on cosmology to prophesize what the future holds. They exhibit a “set of values and a cluster of ideas that made them Egyptian rather than Ethiopian or Greek.” 1 In this modern era, an Egyptian is identified no longer by a particular genotype or language; “rather is comprised of many different people who participate in one general Arab culture.” 2 As it happens, being an Egyptian is like being American; the term is associated to citizenship. Egyptians were legendary for revering their pharaohs not merely as rulers, but gods.

Today, Islam is the most prevalent religion in the country, with Christianity and Judaism that both adhered to the teachings of Jesus Christ, as the minor group. Islam was introduced by the Arabs during the 600 A.D. It points to Allah as the one God, and indoctrinates the philosophies of the prophet Mohammad. Muslims, as the followers refer to themselves, read from their holy book Qur’an and pray to Allah five times daily (Moscovitch 2008). “Long years of coercion and exploitation by foreign ruling powers and native autocratic states have left its mark on the Egyptian personality.

”3 Based on their current political situation, the fact evidently shaped the character of the Egyptians and their attitudes towards the government. It is an Islamic ideology to concentrate power in one person, the Caliph, and hail him the "ruler of the world", and this remains the main characteristic of all the Muslim rulers in Egypt (Fahmy 2002). Muhammad Ali who led Egypt from 1805 to 1848, Gamal Abd al-Nasser from 1952 to 1970, Mu?ammad Anwar el-Sadat from 1970 to 1981, and Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak from 1981 to 2011 all epitomized a government of absolute despotism; the “executive, civilian, military, and judicial functions”4 are vested solely upon the head of the state.

In despotic states the nature of government requires the most passive obedience and when once the prince's will is made known, it ought infallibly to produce its effect. Here they have no limitations or restrictions, no mediums, terms, equivalents or remonstrance, no change to propose, man is a creature that blindly submits to the absolute will of the sovereign.5 II. POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN EGYPT: CAUSE AND IMPACT Countless protests are heard throughout Egypt; nevertheless, it is believed that the tensions rooted from these three issues: 1) Muslim terrorism that lead to some 200 deaths in the following 18 months during the 1990s, 2) the ratification of the Martial Law that imprisoned around 2000 militants mostly associated with the Muslim Brotherhood—a mainstream movement in Egypt with followers at all levels of society, and 3) the allegation of the Coptic Christians concerning mistreatments by the government and its failure to put the sought-after democracy into practice (History World 2010).

In his 30 years of presidency, Mubarak retained the emergency laws initiated by his predecessor. These laws gave him a greater presidential power “including the right to appoint the Cabinet, without any provision for parliamentary majority, and the role of supreme commander of the armed forces, and chief policy-maker in matters of security, diplomacy, and the economy.”6 The president was ousted in a national uprising on February 11, 2011, making way for constitutional