This article argues that anti-Shi'ism is simply one component in a strategy to justify and enforce Egypt's security policies and regional leadership goals. An examination of Egyptian press coverage of the 2009 discovery of a Hizbullah cell in Egypt illustrates a process through which Shi'ism is initially identified as a sectarian threat, but then de-Arabized through linkage with Iran. Despite being an Arab organization, Egyptian media portray Hizbullah as a challenge to the Arab world's stability, more than a Shi'i challenge to Sunnism or a security threat. This indicates that Egypt's traditional foreign policy of defending Arab interests is more important than sectarianism in conceptualizing threats to its security.Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, media and governments in Egypt and other Arab states have regularly represented Iran as a source of regional instability.1 This representation has been a factor in a number of recent conflicts, including the sectarian violence that followed the American invasion of Iraq in 2003,2 the demonstrations in Bahrain in early 2011,3 and the ongoing Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen.4 However, such a straightforward sectarianism-driven narrative overlooks that prior to the Arab Spring there had been shifts in the regional power configurations that suggested the rise of Middle Eastern powers, notably Turkey as well as Iran.5 The 2005 election of hardliner Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who championed more assertive policies in the region, and his disputed reelection in 2009, compounded Arab governments' pre-existing concerns regarding the extent of Iran's geostrategic objectives. Yet while there has been an academic and policy focus on Iran's relations with the Gulf states,6 and on assessing the likelihood of a Shi'a revival7 less attention has been paid to the changing relations between Egypt and Iran in this context.8 This article begins to address this gap, which is critical in light of the reconfigurations of relations in the region since the recent Arab uprisings9 and the emerging narratives of threat and insecurity.10 Egypt and Iran, two of the oldest nation-states in the region, have a long history of cooperation and conflict, and as the two most populous nations in the Middle East, shifts in their relationship, and the historical dynamics underlying them, have the potential to impact the international relations of the region.One explanation for portraying Iran as a threat to the established order in the region has been the sectarian divide between an officially Shi'i Iran and a mainly Sunni Arab world. In his 2006 book The Shia Revival, Vali Nasr delivered a bold warning about potential sectarian tensions in the Middle East:In the coming years Shias and Sunnis will compete over power, first in Iraq but ultimately across the entire region. Beyond Iraq, other countries will (even as they embrace reform) have to cope with intensifying rivalries between Shias and Sunnis. The overall Sunni-Shia conflict will play a large role in defining the Middle East as a whole and shaping its relations with the outside world.11This study of Egyptian perceptions of Iran as a regional threat reconfigures Vali Nasr's emphasis on the Sunni-Shi'i divide, which he argues is the primary driver of regional relations and conflict. In contrast, this analysis indicates that it is not simply Iran's Shi'i identity, but that it is predominantly its identity that underlies the Egyptian government's and media's framing of apparent Iranian challenges to its sovereignty and regional leadership. Notably, its relations with Iran operate in the context of the established narrative of Egypt as an Arab leader and the vanguard of Arab unity, which since the 1980s has meant promoting political stability in the Arab world.12To investigate the operation of a Sunni/Shi'i narrative in popular public discourse in Egypt and to examine how anti-Shi'a sentiments are ultimately transformed into a perceived threat to the Arab world from a non-Arab Other, this article examines Egyptian newspaper coverage following the discovery of a covert Hizbullah cell in Egypt in April 2009 and compares the coverage to previous reportage on the organization. …
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Jan 15, 2024
Open Access
Akhmad Siddiq + 3