"WESTERNIZATION" OF EGYPT: PROBLEMS OF MODERN EGYPTIAN EDUCATION

Abstract

In this article, the relation between the Westernization experience and theradical Islamists reaction in Egypt is examined. It is argued that it is necessary to focus onthe historical imagination of Westernization to understand the Egyptian reaction asmanifested in Islamist religious educational discourse. The historical imagination appearsto be based on a traumatic experience which was triggered by a traumatic event, namelyBritish colonialism. The religious educational discourse in Egypt, an opportune case toobserve radical Islamist response to the trauma experience, is found to be a mediatingstructure between the historical experience and the Islamist reaction. The study indicatesthat emic categories and societal emotions play a significant role in this mediation.