The Impacts of Iran’s Islamic Revolution on Egypt

Abstract:

Concurrently with the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Awakening advanced to a stage that mobilized the Muslims in the Islamic world against internal tyranny and foreign domination. The Islamic Awakening in Egypt that had simultaneously started with the all-out invasion of the West into the Islamic world and the colonial era and found a wider dimension through people like Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, neither impacted the lives of all the Muslim masses nor came up with a new plan. For the first time, the dialogue of the Islamic Awakening was turned into a political act by Imam Khomeini (ra) during the Islamic Movement of the Iranian People.

They assimilated that in all the realm of action of all the Muslim masses and within a very short period, it managed to bring great achievements to the Islamic and human society at large. The first and the most important achievement was that the dialogue of the Islamic Awakening was turned from a sub-discourse into a dominant discourse. In the meantime, just like the other Muslim countries, the Muslim nation of Egypt under the influence of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, entered the war field with a fresh army. By analyzing the changes during the first years after the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in Egypt, this research is aimed at depicting the beginning of a new wave of Islamism in the Egyptian nation under the influence of the movement of Imam Khomeini (ra).

The role of the Islamic Revolution in the emergence of the Islamic Awakening

As an independent and free country and due to its geopolitical and geostrategic position, the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been influential in international developments. In these periods, especially in the Pahlavi era, most countries epitomized Atatürk’s model in Turkey. It is due to this that the influence in this historical period is limited to the region and specifically the Muslim countries.

The movement of Imam Khomeini (ra) is the culmination of the Islamic fundamentalism that has enabled the other Islamic movements all over the world to become powerful under the influence of his success in establishing the Islamic Republic. In reality, the ideology and plan of Imam Khomeini (ra) was a combination of identity and development. While the former leaders of the Islamic Awakening movement like Sayyid Jamal were after development and modernity, others faintly emphasized identity. As much as Imam Khomeini (ra) was after reviving the Islamic identity, the issues of development also had a special place in his dialogue. Development that was defined within the framework of the Islamic identity. The political theory of Imam Khomeini (ra) was only expressed in the form of Islam and this was what made Imam Khomeini (ra) have such an elevated position in the Islamist movements in the Muslim world. (Babi Sa’id, 2000, page 105)

Iran’s Islamic Revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (ra) has played a significant role in the formation and mobilization of many Islamic movements in the Muslim world. The collapse of racism, nationalism and secularism prepared the environment for a stronger presence of Islamism in the region. In addition, the Islamic Revolution and the ideologies of Imam Khomeini (ra) greatly influenced this process. Amongst the leaders of the Islamic Awakening in the Arab world, the ideologies of Sayyid Qutb were the closest to an extent to those of Imam Khomeini (ra). Ayatollah Khomeini (ra) and Sayyid Qutb both saw the final solution to the problems they had in understanding Islam. Both viewed the world as ‘us against them.’

Imam Khomein (ra) named these two opposing poles as the poor and the imperialist while Sayyid Qutb referred to them as the ignorant and Islam; they consider both of those segments - the parts of the world that are not governed by the Islamic system and here we can add those parts that are not dominated by religious behaviour – to be the realm of ignorance and imperialism. Based on the views of scholars such as Imam Khomeini (ra) and Sayyid Qutb, Islam is both a religion and government and the Western values and moral patterns cannot be compatible with the Islamic values. (Babi Sa’id, 2000, page 109)

Egypt: The Heart of the Arab World

As the cradle of civilization, art and religion of the Sunni world, Egypt has always been among the first countries in the movements for seeking freedom. Likewise, the elites and scholars of Egypt are among the pioneers of seeking freedom in the Arab countries both during the time of the Turkish and the British colonial era in this country.

Amongst the Egyptian intellectuals, Sayyid Qutb is the most celebrated intellectual whereby during the time that the Turkish and Iranian governments were following the West and moving the country towards modernism, considered all the present societies to be ignorant and the European societies at the peak of ignorance. This is what shows the determinative factor and difference between his thoughts and those of the pioneers of Islamism who had accepted the superiority and the development of the Western civilization. Sayyid Qutb redefined the terms ‘development’ and ‘underdevelopment’ and introduced the new criteria for development. He used to emphasize that a developed society is not a society that is at the peak of material production. Rather, a civilized society shows moral supremacy. A society that is at its peak in the aspect of knowledge and technology but is at its nadir in the moral aspect is a society that is lagging behind. Meanwhile, a society that is highly ranked in the moral aspect but lags behind in terms of knowledge and production is developed. (Muwathiqi, 2000, page 274)

Contemporary Egypt and Iran’s Islamic Revolution

The inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution greatly intensified the ideology of the Islamists and the development of Islamism in Egypt and also the internal events. From the late 1970s, Egypt which had left its old principle of security, that is, opposing Israel and the West, became a symbol of the stability of Western interests under the leadership of Anwar Sadat. Both Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak considered the Islamic Revolution as a threat to the security of the Egyptian nation. The Islamic Revolution used to threaten all the conservative, weak, unstable and corrupt governments of the Arab countries. The fundamentalism of Iran’s Islamic Revolution which had inspired the Islamic fundamentalists of Egypt escalated the concerns of this nation. These matters led to the confrontation of Iran and Egypt in such a way that in a matter of fewer than three months after the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Iran cut its diplomatic ties with Egypt and Israel. The severance of Iran’s ties with Egypt, Israel and the United States was a major strategic setback for the United States. During that time, Egypt did not manage to play a major role against Iran due to the following reasons:

1. By signing the peace treaty with Israel, Egypt had become isolated in the Arab world. Even though the Arab nations were afraid of the impacts of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, however, they could neither come close to Egypt nor seek its support.
2. With the isolation of Egypt, Iraq took the responsibility of the leadership of the Arab countries. Iraq played a vital role in its attack against Egypt for its betrayal.
3. Egypt was busy creating major changes in its military structure and equipment from the Russian systems to the Western systems. As a result of this, they were incapable of providing military support to the Arab countries. (Hashim, 1994, page 277)

Nonetheless, the major source of official fear in Egypt was the religious groups and specifically the Islamic groups regardless of them being secret or public. This was because despite the great gap between the ideological content of these groups, Iran’s Islamic Revolution with its Islamic content, was a new driving force for these groups and this perception was significantly felt in Egypt. These groups had agreed on two things. Their position in regards to the Camp David Accords and their position in regards to Iran’s Islamic Revolution and as they verified the revolution of Imam Khomeini (ra) in Iran with the Islamic motives. Meanwhile, they opposed the position of Anwar Sadat in regards to Iran’s Islamic Revolution and his reception of the Shah in Egypt.

Nonetheless, the manner of this opposition was different according to the view of every group. The Muslim Brotherhood used to emphasize that the Muslim youths are not chaotic and controversial and they do not have the intention of toppling the regime and replacing it with another one. This is while groups such as ‘Takfir wal-Hijrah’ under the leadership of Shukri Mustafa - who was hanged after being accused of taking part in the killing of Dr. al-Dhahabi, the Egyptian Minister of Endowments – and the ‘Jundullah’ and ‘al-Jihad’ groups did not hide their belief in regards to the necessity of opposing the regime. Likewise, they openly expressed their justification for fighting against the regime with this verse of the Noble Quran; “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war.” (The Noble Quran – 8:60) (Shafi’i, 2010)

Factors Influencing the Poor Relationship Between Iran and Egypt

When it comes to Iran’s Islamic Revolution, not only was Anwar Sadat enraged by the expulsion of the Shah but was also aware of the significance of the revolution and its long-term impacts upon the Arab countries. The matter that agitated him the most was that Iran’s Islamic Revolution led to the removal of the Palestinians and specifically Yasser Arafat whom he had struggled for the past five years to put in a narrow circle and by confining them, force them to cooperate with him in the peace treaty with Israel. (Montazimi, 1979, page 29).

According to Yasser Arafat, Iran’s Islamic Revolution could have been the best epitome for the fall of the Egyptian regime. Likewise, some of the Western diplomats believed that the Arab countries have oil and thus remained close to Egypt due to this reason. They used to think that Anwar Sadat would enforce a policy that would thwart the activities of a communist government coming into power in this country. Nevertheless, the inception of the Islamic Revolution and the collapse of the Shah and his expulsion from oil-rich-Iran, proved that the unity of the Muslims is capable of preventing the escalation of the influence of communism in the Middle East. It was vital that the Arabs had believed that the Iranian revolution and the fall of the Shah is a guide for the toppling the regime of Anwar Sadat in Egypt. (Montazimi, 1979, page 49)

Archive of The Thought of the Islamic Revolution