Explanation: Modern Egypt (and medieval Egypt, for that matter) is overwhelmingly Muslim, a monotheistic faith, and praying towards Mecca (which is eastwards of Egypt) is a practice of the religion.
The Ancient Egyptian Pharoah Akhenaten attempted to replace the pantheon of traditional Egyptian gods with a monotheistic faith worshipping the sun, which rises in the east. It didn’t outlast his reign, and was eagerly cast off before the Pharoah’s body was even cold.
Clearly all monotheistic faiths are not made equal in the eyes of the Egyptian people! :p
To expand on that, both religions were, let’s say, “heavily encouraged” by the rulers. But Akhenaten was pretty much just one guy who wanted to establish his crazy new religious ideas, while the Rashidun caliphate brought with it an entire ruling class already based on Islam. The population was already Abrahamic-monotheistic at that point as well (Christian), so I guess they had a bit of an easier time.
