Egyptians hold competing Arab, Egyptian, and Muslim political identities

Evidence

A classic example of the clash of identities and allegiances can be seen in Egypt, a nation and a country sharply defined by both history and geography, but with three different over-lapping identities. At various times in their history, Egyptians have defined themselves in different ways. For some, they are Arabs because they use Arabic and share a common culture with other countries of Arabic speech. Others see themselves primarily as Egyptians, with a sense of identity and continuity going back to remote antiquity. Others again regard both the Egyptian and the Arabic identities as unimportant and outweighed by the common brotherhood of Islam. These three identities—Arab, Egyptian, Muslim—are expressed in different ideologies, and pursued with great vigor by dif­ ferent political groups, parties and alignments, often in conflict and of course expressed also in different notions of sovereignty. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1618

Categorization

• QUESTION: Whether overlapping identity is uniquely Middle Eastern or a universal modern condition across postcolonial states bears chasing with comparative cases.
• SHARE: Good note for someone theorizing identity pluralism or national myth construction.
• XREF: connects to: Plans for hereditary succession united Egypt’s ideological rivals against Mubarak. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 212