Annals of Japan Association for Middle East Studies
Online ISSN : 2433-1872
Print ISSN : 0913-7858
Islamism, Egyptian Nationalism, or Arabism?: Comparison of the 2007 Survey of the Greater Cairo Area and the Opinion Survey in Egypt 2008 (<Special Feature> Political Orientations of the Egyptian Public Based on the Result of Egypt Opinion Survey 2008)
Hiroshi TOMITA
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2011 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 183-206

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Abstract

This report examines the relationship between the regional identity and political awareness of Egyptians, based on the results of the 2007 Survey of the Greater Cairo Area and the Opinion Survey in Egypt 2008. The survey of three governorates, Cairo, Qalyubia, and Giza, in 2007 provided a glimpse into the high degree of concern the citizens generally had toward politics and, contrarily, the extremely low sense of political effectiveness they felt. While paying heed to the features that came to light in the 2007 Cairo Survey, this report presents cross tabulations of Islamism, Egyptian Nationalism, and Arabism (the three “isms”) on Egyptians’ regional identities with seven items on political awareness, etc., in the Opinion Survey in Egypt 2008: “The six governorates,” “Concern for politics,” “Appraisal of current state of citizen participation in the local community,” “America’s degree of contribution to Middle Eastern peace,” “General appraisal of central administration,” “Presumed support for political parties at the People’s Assembly election,” and “income levels (household monthly income).” Then, it compares the results over a sample of six governorates. In these cross tabulations, significant differences were found in ratios of sympathy for the identity indices between the four governorates of Lower Egypt and the two of Upper Egypt that served as the sampling regions. We get a glimpse of citizen consciousness in the two governorates of Upper Egypt, which is more activated than in the four governorates of Lower Egypt. Under the environment of Egyptian citizens’ consciousness, which allows these three “isms” to coexist, it is thought that there is some degree of interlinking and fusion in the assertion of these three identities. In particular, in cases where a general activation of political awareness is induced, both Islamism and Egyptian Nationalism may serve as an index, showing almost complete correlation, with sympathy ratios of 90% to 100%, as seen in Beni Suef and Sohag. The activated awareness among Egyptians in these two governorates fits, to some extent, the hypothesis that traditionally, Upper Egyptians (al-Şa’īdī) have harbored anti-centralism toward Lower Egypt, especially Cairo.

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© 2011 Japan Association for Middle East Studies (JAMES)
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