Burning the Egyptian flag in Tahrir Square by Egyptian hands was an extremely shocking scene. However, it brought me some hope as reaching such peak of low sense of belonging to the home country means we will regain it soon. Burning the Egyptian flag has already started 60 years ago when official media told us that we are no more Egyptians, but Arab. Now, after years of struggle, the Egyptians decided they belong to Egypt.
Since its foundation in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood tried to revive the Islamic identity again. Yet, they failed as the Egyptian identity was deeply rooted in the Egyptians.
However, Nasser imposed the Arab identity and even changed the name of Egypt to be "United Arab Republic" after the Egyptians had not even recognized the Arab identity!
Saad Zaghloul had replied to a suggestion for the Arab unity saying: "zero plus zero equals zero". Yet, Nasser imposed the Arab identity by force, which made the job much easier for the Islamists to impose the Islamic identity using force and terrorization as well. Furthermore, they called their opposition “infidels”, which is lawful to be killed!
Taking a closer look, we should find that the Arab and Islamic nationalism are two sides of the same coin.
It's sad that Egyptian identity is lost between the Arab and Islamic identities. It's sad that such welter that started 60 years ago and led to our deterioration is not really realized by our leaders and politicians until now. It made us lose our identity and deformed the Egyptian personality making it not able even to innovate and contrive.
However, the 50-members committee to amend the 2012 Constitution insists that we are part of another nation and don't have our own confidentiality. Therefore, do not be surprised to see the Egyptian flag being burned by Egyptian people in Egyptian Squares! We are not raised to respect and appreciate our Egyptian identity. We are but proud racists.
Long live Egypt.
