Construction(S) of the Nation in Egyptian Textbooks

The contents, organisation, and functions of living historical memory in Egypt and Morocco

“…As expected, events related to Islamists and to the Morsi regime were infrequently mentioned, except in reference to Morsi's removal, despite Islamists and President Morsi winning the first democratic elections held in generations and the first held after the 2011 revolution that was so prominent in Egyptians' memories. It is possible that this may be due to participants perceiving this period as a short-lived failure, and therefore not significant to the history of the country, or to the extreme suppression of Islamists and their ideology and accomplishments that have been government policy both before the 2011 revolution and after the 2013 coup (see also Abdou, 2017). Conformist self-censorship is another possibility (Guimelli & Lo Monaco, 2016), as expressing memories of Islamist accomplishments or thoughts could threaten the postcoup standards of Egyptian society.…”

“…This instability started and ended in military-linked authoritarian government, with a brief interregnum of democratic Islamist rule that also produced widespread discontent. Throughout this period, the historical national narrative propagated by the authorities (through the media, school curricula, and other modes of communication) has emphasised obedience to authorities, glorification of the military, and nationalistic sentiments, and has hardly changed since the country's independence more than 50 years ago (Abdou, 2017;van de Bildt, 2015;Diab, 2019;Sasnal, 2014). It is the military that is the hero and moral exemplar in the romantic national narrative that essentialises the nation (Carretero, 2011).…”

“…van de Bildt (2015) described the current narrative pillars in Egyptian propaganda as demonisation of the Muslim Brotherhood, continuing the war on terror, continuity of the 2011 revolution in President Sisi's regime, and the historic unity of the army and the people. Abdou (2017) argued that while the wearying effect of continued instability and insecurity combined with such political propaganda played a role in the current acceptance of the Egyptian regime, it is the regime's manipulations of the consistent, familiar, deeply rooted national narrative that defused political opposition.…”