Young Egypt Party (1933)

Green Shirts of Young Egypt party including Gamal Abdel-Nasser 1930s.

The party was formed 12 October 1933 as a nationalist party with "religious elements" by its leader Ahmed Hussein. Its aim was to encourage Union consisting of Egypt and Sudan—that would ally with other Arab & Muslim countries It derives its name from the Young Italy party, which appeared in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, and contributed to the unification of that country[1] ". There are opinions think that the very high popularity of the party was the inspiration for the emergence of movements like Green Shirts which was different as opinions think it was a militaristic organization as its young members were organized in a paramilitary movement. This excerpt is from the first issue of "Al Sarkha"= the loud call,[2] the official magazine of the Young Egypt Association, issued on December 30, 1933.

"We live in chaos, so we must live in order, by gather young people on one level, & accustom them to order and obedience, to dress them in one uniform, and to make for them one slogan and a specific goal, and to set an example for them that they are trying to reach, and to fill them with faith in their right. And out of faith in their strength and ability to work, and to force them to austerity, to have some amusement, effeminacy, and defilement, to worship God, to perish for the sake of the homeland, and to gather around the throne of the king.”

Another possible reason is around the same time many other organizations like Muslim brotherhood estublished ,also as some of its member openly admired the achievements Germany in world wars the enemy of Egypt's occupier, the British Empire. but it was only an anti-British tone increase.[3]

During its heyday in the 1930s Young Egypt's[4] "Green Shirts" had some violent confrontations with the Wafd party's "Blue Shirts". One member even tried to assassinate Mustafa el-Nahas Pasha in November 1937. Under government pressure, the Green Shirts were disbanded in 1938. The group was renamed the Nationalist Islamic Party in 1940, when it took on a more religious, as well as anti-British tone. After the war it was renamed yet again, now the Socialist Party of Egypt. The group's one electoral success came when it sent Ibrahim Shukri, its vice-president, to parliament in 1951. However it was disbanded, along with all other parties, in 1953 following the 1952 revolution

After political parties were allowed again in Egypt, Ibrahim Shoukry formed a group, the Socialist Labor Party in 1978, which despite its name look much like the social nationalistic ideology of Young Egypt. Its was conistis of members from different economic & social levels

Ahmed Hussein - Young Egypt party 1933

Al-Ishtrakeyia Journal (Young Egypt party)

• Political Parties of the Middle East and North Africa Ed. Frank Tachau; Greenwood Press: Westport Connecticut, 1994
• Young Egypt green shirts & British impeire
• Misr Al-Fatah and free officers movement
• Al-Ahram weekly article Color of shirts in Egypt
• Alleged relation with Nazi Germany
• "Young Egypt" (Misr al-Fatah) movement members later presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat
• Young Egypt and terrorism
• Young Egypt and Wafd party