You are mistaken in that:
The Arabs did not strip the Egyptians its culture,, and actually Islam did not do that,, it happened before that with the Roman,,
n 388 Flavius Theodosius ( 11 January 347 – 17 January 395) a prefect to Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor with the aim of breaking up pagan associations and the destruction of their temples. The Serapeum at Alexandria was destroyed during this campaign. In a series of decrees called the "Theodosian decrees" he progressively declared that those Pagan feasts that had not yet been rendered Christian ones were now to be workdays (in 389). In 391, he reiterated the ban of blood sacrifice and decreed "no one is to go to the sanctuaries, walk through the temples, or raise his eyes to statues created by the labor of man" (decree "Nemo se hostiis polluat", Codex Theodosianus xvi.10.10). The temples that were thus closed could be declared "abandoned", as Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria immediately noted in applying for permission to demolish a site and cover it with a Christian church
As a consequence, Egypt's pagan culture was continually in decline. While the native population continued to speak their language, the ability to read hieroglyphic writing slowly disappeared as the role of the Egyptian temple priests and priestesses diminished. The temples themselves were sometimes converted to churches or abandoned to the desert.
The Muslim came later and continue the job...so the myth that Islam ONLY,, spread by the sword is not true,, and before the Arabs conquer ,, there was a Roman one 600 years before
Now , would Egypt be better or worse;;; well, indeed Egypt was better due to the work of Mohamed Aly family,,, for a while,,after lots of degrading,,,, and indeed Egypt degraded more recently after the oil money came with either the recent Arabs or the Egyptians who carried the smell of the source of their money (again oil money ) to Egypt
Lots of people do not know that Saudi ARABIA WAS NOT CALLED SAUDI ARABIA TILL 1926,,In fact one of the stars in the old Egyptian flag was representing Hijaz which was under Egypt rule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt_flag_1882.svg Nowadays, you want to know why Egypt degraded:
simply : the Romans, then the Arabs (Real Islam started to die after al kolafaa el Rasheeden) - Muslim omoya- abasya, fatimed then Ayob, Mamlok were just some occupiers who even killed themselves for power and interest-(except of very few) then the big disaster,, the Turk of course,then the French and the English,(i can remove the French from the list),,,all those did a perfect job in sucking the blood of the Egyptians , keep them and drag them more to ignorance,, to maintain control on them,and get Taxes,even if some were good ,, were taken to (turkey),,,In fact the Arabs did not want the Egyptians to be Muslims to keep taxing them,,, That is why it took long time for the Egyptians to be Muslims (only because the Tatar who destroyed El Abasia empire,,, the Muslims Arabs had to mix with the Egyptians to eat),
In the modern days, I do not see any difference,, The Egyptians had to suffer again the disaster after Nasr tried hard to save them,,,, Pay attention Nasr almost fought the Saudi,, and he was too much hated by them,,, Those people never forget,,, anyway it is a long story,,,,
--* God words (religions ) never lead to degradation, only the greed and the love of power by some, lead others to be ignorant and degraded,,,Christianity was finished when the Romans used it to control others,,, and Islam also was finished when the Arabs used it to gain power over others,,The main point of Religions is the Human spirit and soul , not a political method to occupy and control others,,,( Except very few moments in the history)
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Morocco:North Africa,,,a similar story happened, but the Arabs there, were the branch of el Omween (from korish tribe) who were in Andalusia (and were not that ethical there) they settled , after they were kicked out from Spain,, and they treated the natives with arrogance claiming they are from el Ashraf,,that they sold the Berber to Europe,, and tried hard to get rid of them,, that made the Berbers to lead the sad life they live now,,, they also sent/sending their own spies to watch them in Europe,, I know personally lots of stories regarding that...