During the 1950s and 1960s President Nasser championed socialism and nationalized many Egyptian industries. After Nasser s assassination by Islamic fundamentalists his successors Sadat and Mubarak performed ideological somersaults and received US aid for making peace with Israel. Poverty is worst in the south where peasants and African Nubians receive few of the benefits found in Cairo and Alexandria. During the free market 1980s, Egypt borrowed heavily. The free market s squeeze has also widened a rift between secular and religious that threatens to tear the country apart.
Islamic movements win converts with free clinics, food, clothing and education.
The most extreme groups are also waging armed struggle, killing leading secular figures and members of the country s relatively prosperous Coptic Christian community. The regime hopes to outwit the Islamic fundamentalists by being more religious than they are. But symbolic gestures like inserting daily prayers into TV broadcasts don t seem to be working. With attacks near tourist attractions, fundamentalists are poised to derail Egypt s biggest money-maker. The security forces are clamping down and thousands of Muslim leaders languish in prison, many are subjected to torture.