Islamism in Nubia and Egypt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Islamism in Nubia and Egypt - Essay Example The arrival of the Arab Muslims into the Christian Country of Egypt began the call to Islam. They penetrated the country to restrain it and bring it under their dominion. Their arrival sparked off the process of Islamization in Egypt. Although throughout the history of Egypt the conversion to Islam was quite gradual but a steady trickle of Copts converting to Islam was inevitable. At some points, this trickle distended to a steady or even gushing flow of new converts. The Islamisation of Egypt went through stages which were diverse in nature and occurred at different stages in its history. People in Egypt were taken by surprise when the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood achieved a fifth parliamentary seat in the 2005 elections. Concurrent to this shock is the escalating number of attacks on Copts in the country. These two events are in fact connected and should be viewed as a natural consequence of persistent efforts over the past few decades to Islamise the country. Egypt's system o f government that was on the threshold of collapse under a corrupt monarchy some six decades ago, nearly succumb to the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. ... of the "Free Officers" had formerly been Brotherhood members and, as new leaders, it was apparent they had exceptional connections with the Brotherhood, but the realities of ruling soon led to differences of interests. This eventually led to the ban of the Brotherhood in 1954, and its objectives and designs had to be set aside. Nevertheless, these goals and aspirations never really died. The years of the Nasser with successes, losses, and experimentations with Arabism and socialism, those set-aside aspirations were revived with the arrival of Anwar Sadat. He commenced his rule by providing avenues to the Brotherhood and other Islamic groups. He then began what has been famously dubbed as the "Great Islamic Transformation" of Egypt. There transpired changes in the constitution to where the Principles of Islamic Shari'a were "a main source" of legislation. This was stipulated in the Second Article of his new Constitution that was promulgated in 1971. The "a" was then replaced with "the", that made Shari'a the term of reference for the entire constitution, therefore stating that all other articles will be interpreted in that sense. This was done in May of 1981. This significant change provided the official, political, and 'psychological' foundation for the Islamic transformation to advance in an unstoppable pace. "I am a Muslim president of a Muslim state." This famous slogan of Sadat was an apparent manifestation of this historical transformation. Those who have endured the most sufferings during the drastic transformation are the Copts. "I can no longer stand the insults and the spitting in my face because I don't wear hijab. I have become a stranger to my own country." This was a statement made by a young Coptic woman from Alexandria, as quoted by one of the