ABSTRACT
Without a doubt, the onset of the Gulf Arabs’ urban development upheaval during the past decade, with the subsequent waves of investment portfolios and mega-projects that hit various parts of the Arab region, and the more recent political tsunami of the Arab Spring have helped revive in Egypt the idea of Khalganat Misr, a broad ‘Gulfanization’ of Egypt in people’s modes of cultural, political and urban thinking. At once a vague concept and a real occurrence, the term mirrors a web of existing questions, discussions and debates that permeate Egyptian society concerning the rising tide of Gulf influences, namely, a suspected ‘Gulfanization’ in political, religious, cultural and media spheres. Evidence abounds: from the current heated debates over the shrinking political role of Egypt in the Arab world to the role played by the Gulf States, especially their media, in the Arab Spring to the rise of al-Nour Party, which embodies a Saudi version of Wahhabism and pushed for stricter, more conservative articles in the recent debates over the new constitution; from the declining cultural influence and viewing of Egyptian TV dramas and news broadcasting to the near hegemony of Egyptian movie production by Gulf media companies; from the ‘Gulfanization’ of music and poetry to the Wahhabization of Islamic doctrine and traditions (Al-Alawi 2011).
