President Husni Mubarak
History and info
Religion
Islam is the offical religion, and about 90 per cent of all Egyptians are sunni Muslims. According to offical Egyptians estimates, the copctic church, a christian denomination constitutes the largest religious minority with no more than 3 million adherents, copts themselves claim some 7 million members. Fewer than 1 per cent of the people belong to the Greek Orthidox, Roman Catholic, Armenian, and various Protestant churches. The country has a very small Jewish community.
Language
The Arabic language is the national and offical language of Egypt. Berber is spoken in afew villages in the western oases. French and english are common seccond languages among the educated.
Population
Most Egyptians are decended from indigenous pre-muslim population ( the ancient Egyptians) and the Arabs, who conqured the area in the 7th Century AD. Elements of other Conquering peoples (Greeks, Romans, Turks) are also present, especially in lower Egypt. The mixture has given the inhabitants of the Nile Vally physical characteristics that set them apart from other mediterranean peoples of the region. The Nubians, an indigenous people, are an important minority group in Egypt. The Nubians lived in Villages along the Nile in southern Egypt and Northen Sudan for thousands of years. However, the formation of lake Nasser inundated many of these villages. About 40 per cent of the Egyptian population lives in the urban areas.Some nomadic and seminomadic herders, mostly Bedouins, continue to live in the desert regions.
Government
Egypt is governed by a constitution promulgated on September 11, 1971. The constituation provides for an Arab socialist state with Islam as the offical religion. It also stresses social solidarity, equal opportunity, and popular control of production. Egypts Local Government is divided into 26 governorates, each headed appointed by the president. The governors are aided by councils, of which most of the members are elected.
From 1961 to 1977 the Arab Soccialist Union (ASU) was the only legal political party in Egypt when a multiparty system was introduced in 1977, the ASU was replaced by several new parties. In the early 1990s the leading political groups were the pro-government National Democratic party, the Islamic (nominally illegal) fundamentalist Muslim brotherhood, and the left-wing Socialist Labour party.
The Army
Men in Egypt between teh ages of 18 and 30 may be conscripted for up to 36 months of military service. The total strength of the defence forces in the early 1990s was about 430,000. The army, was about 310,000 consists of eight mechanized infantry divisions, four armoured divisons, and various separate brigades. Navel personnel numbers about 20,000. Air force personnel are estimated at 30,000 and the air defence command numbers about 70,000. Military reserves total about 304,000. Egypt sent troops to Saudi Arabia in 1990 after Iraq overran Kuwait.
Egyptian civilization was one of the greatest in ancient world and certainly the most long lived. lasting for more than 3000 years.
For nearly seven centuries after the death of Cleopatra, The Roman Empire controlled Egypt (except for a short time in the 3rd century AD, when it came under the power Queen Zenobia of Palmyra)