CAIRO (youregypt.com) - A group of intellectuals have formed a party called Masr Al-Om (Egypt the Motherland) which highlights the Pharaonic identity of Egypt at the expense of other identities.

The group intends to present an official bid to the Political Parties Committee seeking an official authorization of their political entity.

Queen Cleopatra: Pharaonic heritage forms the basis of the new political party.

The principles of the party call for emphasizing the Egyptian identity and undermining any Arab or Islamic identity for the country.

Mohsen Lotfy Al-Sayyed, nephew of famous Egyptian patriotic poet and a co-founder of the party, thinks Hieroglyphics and Coptic language should be nationally adopted and be taught in schools. “(Our) party believes we are Egyptians not Arabs. Arabs are our friends, neighbors and allies. We have a common fate … but still, we are not Arabs,” Al-Sayyed says.

Another member, Talaat Radwan, called for dropping the word Arab from the official name of Egypt for the name to be “The Republic of Egypt” instead of “The Arab Republic of Egypt.”
Moreover, the party founders called for the adoption of the ancient Egyptian calendar which starts from 4241 BC, and usage of Pharaonic month names instead of –or side by side with- current Gregorian months.

The founders stress the reasons behind Arabic being made the official language of Egypt is historic, which shall not make Egyptians at anyway Arabs, just like the Francophone African countries speak French but none of them claims to have a French identity.

The party’s bid have sparked controversy among Egyptian scholars in a society whose majority still believes in the Arab nationalism laid out and adopted by late Egypt President Gamal Abdel Nasser who died in 1970.
Attempts to emphasize the Egyptian identify were made several times afterwards, most notably in the early 1980s after other Arab states severed relations with Egypt following its peace agreement with Israel in 1979.

It is worth mentioning that since the introduction of the multiparty system in 1978 by late President Sadat, only 14 parties were authorized by the Political Parties Committee which rejected more than 50 other bids.