Napoleon’s invasion in 1798 exposed Muslim Egypt to the power and ideas of modern West. In his wake, Egypt became the first Islamic polity to attempt modernization. Egypt made economic progress under British occupation but democracy during the inter-war period proved inept and corrupt. Era of Nasser brought some progress but did not resolve the ideological tensions between modernity and religious order of society. During the Arab Spring, army once again emerged as the arbiter of society’s split between Islamism and secular nationalism. Two centuries after the modernization drive of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Egypt remains poor, fragmented, and undemocratic.
About the Speaker:
Syed Sardar Ali earned his first master’s degree in International Relations from Japan and worked for Sony Corporation and the Industrial Bank of Japan in Tokyo. He later earned Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard where he was a student of Prof. Samuel Huntington. Upon graduation he joined the World Bank in Washington, DC and worked in the Financial and Private Sector Unit in the Europe and Central Asia region until 2002. Sardar Ali is the Chairperson of Crescent Foundation.