1. Egyptian liberals, from revolution to counterrevolution
DAANISH FARUQI AND ALIA F. FAHMY
The genealogies of Egyptian liberalism
Conclusion: Is liberalism contradictory?
Section I: Liberalism and The Egyptian State
2. Egypt’s structural illiberalism: How a weak party system undermines participatory politics
Elections in Egypt and why they matter
The parliament as a site of contestation
Political parties after the revolution: A liberal possibility
Participatory politics under SCAF and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood
The 2015 parliament: The political consolidation of authoritarian rule
3. Nasser’s comrades and Sadat’s brothers: Institutional legacies and the downfall of the Second Egyptian Republic
The failure of contingent consent
Institutional legacies and the limitations of agency-centered narratives
The origins of the political field
4. (De)liberalizing judicial independence in Egypt
The three prongs of liberalism: Private, political, and legal liberty
The liberal roots of Egypt’s judiciary
Incremental deliberalization in the Mubarak era
A counterrevolution in the courts
Section II: Liberalism and Egyptian Civil Society
5. The authoritarian state’s power over civil society
The structures of authoritarianism
The post-25 January military regime
Mohammad Morsi’s contradictory policies
General Sisi’s constriction of the public space
The consolidation of authoritarian control
6. Myth or reality?: The discursive construction of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
7. Student political activism in democratizing Egypt
Emergence of Egypt’s student movement
Student activism during Sadat’s era
Student activism during Mubarak’s era
Post-January 25, 2011 revolution
Section III: Islam, Secularism, and the State
8. Egypt’s secularized intelligentsia and the guardians of truth
9. The truncated debate: Egyptian liberals, Islamists, and ideological statism
AHMED ABDEL MEGUIDAND DAANISH FARUQI
Liberals and the state: Authoritarian modernism
Islamists and the state: The modernist paradox
Conclusion: Post-Islamism and post-liberalism as post-statism
Section IV: Egyptian Liberals in Comparative Perspective Post-2013
10. Conflict and reconciliation: “Arab liberalism” in Syria and Egypt
State advocacy and the beginnings of Arab liberalism
Activism and state opposition: The later development of Arab liberalism
Silencing liberal activism in Egypt, ca. 1979–2013
Activists in conflict and artists in reconciliation, Egypt, ca. 2013–
Temporary reconciliation with Assad, Syrian intellectuals, ca. 1982–2012
Conflict, exile and civil war: Liberal activism in Syria, ca. 2000–12
Burhan Ghalioun and Gaber Asfour, ca. 1990–2010
Asfour, the ministry and Egypt’s return to military rule, 2011–14
11. Egypt’s new liberal crisis
The liberal crisis reconsidered
12. Egyptian liberals and their anti-democratic deceptions: A contemporary sad narrative
Grand deception one – Sequentialism
Grand deception two – Nothing is more important than...
Grand deception three – The notion of national necessity
Grand deception four – Religion and politics
Grand deception five – The state above everyone and everything
Concluding remarks – Fascist techniques stepped up