374 Resisting Publics
executioners—and indeed, of Habermas himself. By any rational measure,
Wardani’s ideals and motivations were far more the product of European
liberalism than they were of any religious or “native” commitment. The
widespread and abiding belief that Wardani’s act was based on religious
hatred was particularly ironic given that even the British Consul wrote
that “the motives of the crime were purely political. The murderer had no
personal grudge against the victim, and was not attacking under the influ-
ence of religious fanaticism, and in defence of his deed merely repeated the
accusations which have, in season and out of season, been alleged against
Butrous Pasha, in violent and threatening language in the columns of the
Nationalist Press.”^48 Wardani himself never used religiously derogatory
language concerning his victim; throughout his trial he referred only to
his nationalist motivations.
is actions in prison were also in keeping with those of a devout H
Muslim committed to the ideal of Enlightenment-style nationalism
and liberty. He spent a great deal of time working on a project to write
a Constitution for a Muslim government, using his shoelaces since
he was not allowed a pen. Indeed, he had been one of the members of
the Egyptian Society in Europe that openly disavowed the Khedive’s
patronage when Abbas Hilmi refused to honor their 1908 request for a
Constitution.^49 Furthermore, his reading list in prison consisted of “The
English Constitution by Walter Bagehot; a French political history of con-
temporary Europe; Rousseau’s Contrat Social; a volume of Arabic poetry
and the Koran.”^50 Clearly, Wardani not only participated in the expatri-
ate nationalist discourse but was also committed to importing the pub-
lic sphere, as well as the civil and government institutions that created it,
home to Egypt.
nfortunately for the Watani Party, the popular belief was that U
Wardani’s motive was based on Ghali’s status as a Copt, and this soon
overshadowed the nonsectarian nationalist interpretation in the popu-
lar consciousness. Thus the immediate result of Wardani’s crime was not
to raise nationalist spirits as much as to exacerbate communal tensions.
Furthermore, the difference between the “extreme” Watanists and the
“moderates” became clear to all Egyptians; while moderates condemned
any sort of political violence, the debate within the extreme Watani group
was not on the issue of violence but rather on the role of the Khedive