Construction(S) of the Nation in Egyptian Textbooks
Since January 2011, and as part of what has become widely known as the ‘Arab Spring,’ Egypt has witnessed the largest public demonstrations in the country’s history.1 These uprisings successfully ousted then-president Mubarak. Subsequent events brought Mo
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4. CONSTRUCTION(S) OF THE NATION IN EGYPTIAN TEXTBOOKS Towards an Understanding of Societal Conflict
INTRODUCTION
Since January 2011, and as part of what has become widely known as the ‘Arab Spring,’ Egypt has witnessed the largest public demonstrations in the country’s history.1 These uprisings successfully ousted then-president Mubarak. Subsequent events brought Morsi—the first civilian president in the country’s long history—to power. Based on massive demonstrations that took place in 2013 against his rule, Morsi, who belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), was in turn overthrown by the army, which subsequently came to power. Since then, Egyptians have been extremely polarized. While many see the military’s intervention as having saved Egypt from a theocratic authoritarian rule that was starting to take shape under the MB’s short time in power, another camp rejects the return of military rule and its excessive use of violence and force against civilians. This first camp, whether motivated by pragmatic reasoning that sees the military as a relatively better alternative to MB rule or for other reasons, largely sees the current military rule as a return to normalcy and stability. Such a stance could partly be explained by the fact that Egyptian presidents since the 1952 coup d’état until Mubarak—namely, Naguib, Nasser, and Sadat—have all hailed from the military establishment. The second camp sees the current situation as a triumph for the counterrevolution—basically, a coup d’état that embodies a debacle and a disguised return to an authoritarian regime. While some opponents to the military rule belong to the ousted MB, many in that same camp oppose both the MB and the military, seeing both as manifestations of the same counterrevolutionary forces that aimed to appropriate and hijack the 2011 idealistic and predominantly pacifist uprisings that were initiated and led by youth (De Smet, 2014). Political analysts have attempted to explain the seemingly puzzling speedy shift in public opinion that has led to the current divisiveness and polarization in Egyptian society. How did the euphoria and enormous popular support for the 2011 uprisings erode over the past few years in Egypt? Whether Egyptians have grown impatient with unrest in general or with the young revolutionaries particularly is a difficult question to answer since the two are closely entangled. In all cases, what is important to note for the purpose of this discussion is that the support for the M. J. Bellino & J. H. Williams (Eds.), (Re)Constructing Memory: Education, Identity, and Conflict, 75–98. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
E. D. ABDOU
military—despite many alleged and often well-documented human rights abuses by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces during its rule of the transition period between 2011 and 2012—seems to have remained largely constant among large segments of society. Some propose that the Egyptian people’s continued support for the military is fueled by weariness of the numerous protests and demonstrations si
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