Egyptian nationalists saw Egypt as uniquely placed between civilized Europe and fanatical Africa.

Evidence

Here, Kämil echoes claims about native Sudanese excess (either religious or sexual) that Muhammad al-Tunisï and Shaykh Rifaah Rafi al-Tahtawï had discussed two generations before. As a culture, Kämil continues, Egypt was uniquely imbued with the capacity to bridge this untamed religious energy and western European society. He asks, “Is there any other country in the world as suited by religious liberalism [al-muhidd] and absolute moderation to be the medium between civilized Europe and fanatical Africa if not Egypt?” — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 745

Categorization

• XREF: This mediating-position claim is the ideological core distinguishing Egypt’s colonial posture from Britain’s, key to the reader’s comparison.
• DEEPTHINKING: Dense, layered: anti-colonial nationalist rhetoric reproduces exactly the civilizational hierarchy it resists, positioning Egypt as enlightened colonizer over the Sudan.