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The And The Egyptian Constitution

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Egypt has struggled with creating a united identity because of the diverse ethnicities and cultures that inhabited the land. The idea of an Egyptian state was fully developed after WWI, but even then the identity was contested. After the 2011 revolution there was a shift in mentality as the new government struggled to identify the commonalties and foundation of the citizens in the constitution. Tarek Masiud in “Liberty, Democracy, and Discord in Egypt”, Tahany El Gebaly in “Constitutional Principles,” and John Chalcraft in “Horizontalism in the Egyptian Revolutionary Press” all stress the significance of identity in their respective papers. Although all three sources highlight different topics within the creation of the Egyptian …show more content…

National identity as an Egyptian existed, but the government had not properly REPRESENTED them. Because of that, the citizens were aware of what they wanted, but they labeled themselves incorrectly. There were

“liberals… who fear democracy and democrats who fear liberty” (Masoud 118). During the revolution, the factions were filled with hope that the cause they had fought for could become reality. After the revolution though, the citizens soon were filled with fear because of their lack of understanding of their ideals and ways of implementation (Masoud 117). The levels of uncertainty were astronomical for the success of the ideas. Before the revolution, the governmental structure left little room for freedom to choose different ideas or political identities. Although there was diversity within the government in the sense of different political parties, they did not comprise a large enough majority to have a say. Granted, there were few groups that were well established, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, but the majority of political groups after the revolution were relatively unstable because of how inexperienced they were. These groups could create a foundation for a country when then did not have a platform to stand on for their organization. The largest fear overall though was that a pro-Mubarak government would resume power since the group that had the majority were more inclined to support the

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