An Inquiry into the Cultural Difficulties of Contemporary Egyptian Shiites

Although the history of the presence of Shiites in Egypt coincides with the date of the arrival of Islam in this country, the Shiites in the contemporary history of this country have always faced many problems and have been under pressure from governments. Today, the Shiite movement in Egypt faces many internal and external difficulties and obstacles, including the formation of extremist anti-Shiite thoughts in Egypt, Shiite phobia, being in a position of quantitative inferiority, security problems, lack of religious recognition, lack of religious and intellectual authority, accusation of contact with Iran and securing its interests, lack of Shiite scientific and cultural institutions (such as mosque, hoseyniyeh (congregation hall), seminary, printing house, institute, political party, etc.), propaganda attacks, economic pressure, legal bottlenecks, etc. Salafi extremist currents, as well as governments in North Africa and Egypt, are often at odds with the Shiites and, while depriving them of their freedom of expression, are engaged in constant, exaggerated and inaccurate propaganda about Shiites. In addition, the security view of the Egyptian government and security centers towards the Shiites and their activities has caused the government to exploit this issue politically under various pretexts, and to reduce the pressure of public opinion from time to time by increasing pressure on the Egyptian Shiites. Some Egyptian press distort the facts in order to tarnish the image of the Shiite Islamic community, and some even cite the words of Salafi figures, while this group is hostile to the Shiites and has offensive literature presenting false information about the Shiites. In this paper, after a brief reference to Shiite phobia in Egypt and its relationship with the Islamic Revolution, we try to examine some of the cultural difficulties of contemporary Egyptian Shiites.