One of the most persistent and remarkable elements of the post-January revolution anti-Islamist movement in Egypt has been its struggle to articulate a coherent and attractive intellectual frame and political banner, one that could appeal to a wide public and stand at least toe-to-toe with Islamism.

But if the current discourse and what appears to be a growing public sentiment especially since June 30 continue, then Islamism might have just found its strongest challenger in quite some time in what is a revived and rejuvenated Egyptian nationalism, with army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as its central and visibly popular figurehead. This nationalism is not a precise ideological construct, but rather a complex and multi-faceted concept with many elements that are the subject of some debate. But there are generally several historical milestones that are often considered to be critical points in its history and development. 

The predominant view is that the rebirth of the idea began with the ascension of Muhammad Ali and his family to the throne of Egypt in the early 1800s. Ali, who was neither born in Egypt nor ethnically Egyptian, enacted a series of reforms that are widely considered the historical birth of the modern Egyptian state, and managed to strengthen Egypt’s relative independence from the Ottoman Empire (which was officially based upon the Islamic identity) and with it the Egyptian national identity.

This was followed up by the “Orabi Revolt,” named after the Egyptian army general Ahmed Orabi who led an uprising against (according to the most popular narrative herein) the growing European influence in the country, absolute monarchical rule, the corruption of the ruling Khedive as well as the discrimination against non-aristocrats in the military. It was during this revolt that the phrase “Egypt For Egyptians” was coined, and Orabi — despite his eventual defeat and exile — became historically celebrated as an archetypal Egyptian and non-aristocrat nationalist leader, and the intertwining of the concept of nationalism and the military perhaps began to cement.