The Emancipation of Egypt: A Quest for Modernity under Islamic and Egyptian Values
The Emancipation of Egypt: A Quest for Modernity under Islamic and Egyptian Values

Summary/Abstract: The nineteenth and the twentieth centuries were pivotal in Muslim Egypt’s history as they shaped and influenced not only Egyptian society, but also the Muslim community at large. If the West went through various modernizing movements and experienced a fast advancement, then the East in general and Egypt in particular were marked by the colonial rule, the Orientalist discourse and an identity crisis that threatened their religion. In this context, Islamic Modernism came as a response to the threat posed by the modern, civilized West and it focused towards proving that Islam and modernity could be reconciled. In this sense, my paper aims to show that the contributions of Muhammad ‘Abduh and Gamal Abdel Nasser are notable – the formers tried to reshape Egyptian identity in modern terms, while the latter focused on Egypt’s national identity and the modernization process in the Postcolonial era.

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