It is well-known that the Western imagination went wild with the discovery of Nefertiti's bust and King Tutankhamen in the early 1920s, with an Egyptian craze that permeated pop culture from Hollywood to fashion to art deco and never fully went away (much in the same vein as Tiki pop culture in the baby boomer era). My question, then, is how did Egyptians and Arabs of the 1920s and beyond view ancient Egypt, especially as it gathered Western interest? Was there a similar excitement and fervor? Did Islam have a factor in how it was perceived? Was it just seen as a "Western curiosity?" I know by the 1950s Nasser advocated a strong Egyptian/Arab identity that equated ancient Egypt as pro-Western and ignorant of modern Egyptian culture or something like that. Can anybody answer these vague questions for me?
You might be interested to know that the 1920's was the height of the "pharaonist movement," an Egyptian movement centred on a pride of ancient Egypt and a claim to Egyptian uniqueness rather than an Arab belonging. This most definitely went hand in hand with a growing interest in ancient Egyptian arts and culture, of which many Egyptians participated. It is hard to say what the "average" Egyptian would say, and as with most history what we know is of the upper classes, but there, there was definitely a "similar fervour" as you state it.