Egypt is a major Arab country whose stability and evolution remains pivotal to the future of the Middle East. It is also an important economic force with the second largest market in the region (after Saudi Arabia) and the base for some of the region’s most innovative companies (the most successful telecoms operator, construction conglomerate, investment bank, and private-equity firm). It’s no wonder, then, that Egypt has fallen under the media spotlight; no less than coverage in ten issues in The Economist in 2009 alone; apart from the American and Arab coverage it has received.   

However, many argue that the coverage so far has tended to be reductionist missing some of Egypt’s most significant and dynamic trends. One such important trend is seen as a  pervasive Islamic force in the country. This description, used to describe the Muslim Brotherhood, more accurately defines the Salafist movements, according to Tarek Osman a writer on Egyptian affairs. It is he who argues that an appeal to Barack Obama to reinvigorate the United States’s democracy-promotion efforts in the Arab world is based on a flawed understanding both of political Islam and the real needs of the region’s people.

For an insightful view of the difference between the Muslim world, the Arab world and the Middle East read his article on the subject. As Osman emphasises: “The differences and distinctions matter: for their own sake, for proper understanding by outsiders, for policy that is intended to help not harm to be got right, and for the tragedies and enmities of past years to be overcome rather than repeated.”

And so it seems, the plethora of new media has put Egypt under the spotlight, but allows for too little close study and critical observation. Such hurried coverage risks failing to detect the real trends that are shaping tomorrow’s Egypt – and are not picking up “the differences and distinctions” that matter. As those who work in cross-cultural understanding and intercultural communication know – it’s the differences that make a difference.

Footnote: Salafists, who regard early pious Muslims and their communities as exemplary models, command major followings on the Egyptian “street”. They are not politically active, and that is why they are tolerated (and sometimes encouraged) by the regime; that is also why they do not feature in news-bulletins or reports on the country. Their influence, however, is many times more than that of organised political Islam.  Salafist thinking, which has been expanding and proliferating in Egypt for more than three decades, is based on a religious view of life; a strict and highly conservative social code; and inherently advances an Islamist foreign policy. The accumulating influence of this significant Salafist influence on Egyptian society could be to make many young Egyptians more anti-secular, anti-liberal, and anti-west. After three decades of domestic and foreign efforts to align the country with the United States and the west, including around $100 billion of American (and western) investment in and aid to Egypt, this outcome would be a colossal policy failure. The Salafi phenomenon receives far less attention than it deserves.