Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism Illiberal Intelligentsia and the Future of Egyptian Democracy

by Fahmy, Dalia; Faruqi, Daanish

• ISBN13: 9781780748825
• ISBN10: 1780748825
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-01-17
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications

Summary

The liberatory sentiment that stoked the Arab Spring and saw the ousting of long-time Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak seems a distant memory. Democratically elected president Mohammad Morsi lasted only a year before he was forced from power to be replaced by precisely the kind of authoritarianism protestors had been railing against in January 2011. Paradoxically, this turn of events was encouraged by the same liberal activists and intelligentsia who’d pushed for progressive reform under Mubarak.

This volume analyses how such a key contingent of Egyptian liberals came to develop outright illiberal tendencies. Interdisciplinary in scope, it brings together experts in Middle East studies, political science, philosophy, Islamic studies and law to address the failure of Egyptian liberalism in a holistic manner – from liberalism’s relationship with the state, to its role in cultivating civil society, to the role of Islam and secularism in the cultivation of liberalism. A work of impeccable scholarly rigour, Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism reveals the contemporary ramifications of the state of liberalism in Egypt.

Author Biography

Dr Dalia Fahmy is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Long Island University. Her research examines the intellectual and political development of modern Islamist movements. She lives in Brookville, NY.

Daanish Faruqi is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Duke University, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

1 Egyptian liberals, from revolution to counterrevolution | Daanish Faruqi and Dalia F. Fahmy

Introduction

The genealogies of Egyptian liberalism

Structure of the argument

Conclusion: Is liberalism contradictory?



SECTION I: LIBERALISM AND THE EGYPTIAN STATE

2 Egypt’s structural illiberalism: How a weak party system undermines participatory politics | Dalia F. Fahmy

The party system in Egypt

Elections in Egypt and why they matter

The parliament as a site of contestation

Political parties after the revolution: A liberal possibility

Participatory politics under SCAF and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood

The 2015 parliament: The political consolidation of authoritarian rule

Conclusion

3 Nasser’s comrades and Sadat’s brothers: Institutional legacies and the downfall of the Second Egyptian Republic | Hesham Sallam

The failure of contingent consent

Institutional legacies and the limitations of agency-centered narratives

The origins of the political field

Conclusion

4 (De)liberalizing judicial independence in Egypt | Sahar F. Aziz

The three prongs of liberalism: Private, political, and legal liberty

The liberal roots of Egypt’s judiciary

Incremental deliberalization in the Mubarak era

A counterrevolution in the courts

Conclusion



SECTION II: LIBERALISM AND EGYPTIAN CIVIL SOCIETY

5 The authoritarian state’s power over civil society | Ann M. Lesch

The structures of authoritarianism

The post-25 January military regime

Mohammad Morsi’s contradictory policies

General Sisi’s constriction of the public space

The consolidation of authoritarian control

6 Myth or reality?: The discursive construction of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt | Mohamad Elmasry

The Egyptian press system

Disloyal to Egypt

Anti-revolutionary

Conclusion

7 Student political activism in democratizing Egypt | Abdel-Fattah Mady

Introduction

Emergence of Egypt’s student movement

Student activism under Nasser

Student activism during Sadat’s era

Student activism during Mubarak’s era

Post-January 25, 2011 revolution

Conclusion



SECTION III: ISLAM, SECULARISM, AND THE STATE

8 Egypt’s secularized intelligentsia and the guardians of truth | Khaled Abou El Fadl

9 The truncated debate: Egyptian liberals, Islamists, and ideological statism | Ahmed Abdel Meguid and Daanish Faruqi

Introduction

Liberals and the state: Authoritarian modernism

Islamists and the state: The modernist paradox

Conclusion: Post-Islamism and post-liberalism as post-statism



SECTION IV: EGYPTIAN LIBERALS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE POST-2013

10 Conflict and reconciliation: “Arab liberalism” in Syria and Egypt | Emran El-Badawi

Introduction

State advocacy and the beginnings of Arab liberalism

Activism and state opposition: The later development of Arab liberalism

Egypt and Syria no more

Silencing liberal activism in Egypt, ca. 1979–2013

Activists in conflict and artists in reconciliation, Egypt, ca. 2013–

Temporary reconciliation with Assad, Syrian intellectuals, ca. 1982–2012

Conflict, exile and civil war: Liberal activism in Syria, ca. 2000–12

Burhan Ghalioun and Gaber Asfour, ca. 1990–2010

The Arab uprisings, 2011

Ghalioun and the SNC, 2011–12

Asfour, the ministry and Egypt’s return to military rule, 2011–14

Rabaa

The limits of Arab liberalism

11 Egypt’s new liberal crisis | Joel Gordon

Heroes of the revolution

The liberal crisis reconsidered

Postscript: Five years on

12 Egyptian liberals and their anti-democratic deceptions: A contemporary sad narrative | Amr Hamzawy

Liberal ideas at a crossroads

Grand deception one – Sequentialism

Grand deception two – Nothing is more important than…

Grand deception three – The notion of national necessity

Grand deception four – Religion and politics

Grand deception five – The state above everyone and everything

Concluding remarks – Fascist techniques stepped up

Conclusion: Does liberalism have a future in Egypt? | Emad El-Din Shahin

A liberal legacy

New beginnings

About the contributors

Index