The Copts - equal, protected or persecuted?: The impact of Islamization on Muslim-Christian relations in modern Egypt
The Muslim‐Coptic relationship in Egypt is a multifaceted complex, the result of a long historical process. It is impacted by historical memories and perceptions, as well as by modem political and religious trends. Many causes are offered for the recent deterioration in relations by the various play...
| Published in: | Islam and Christian-Muslim relations |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
1999
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| In: |
Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
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| Further subjects: | B
Orient
B Islam B Interfaith dialogue B Copts B Egypt B Christian B Development B Society B Egypt Copts Religionsgemeinschaften / Beziehungen zwischen religiösen Gruppen Islam Muslime Orientchristen Islamization Gesellschaftliche Prozesse B Muslim B Islamization |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The Muslim‐Coptic relationship in Egypt is a multifaceted complex, the result of a long historical process. It is impacted by historical memories and perceptions, as well as by modem political and religious trends. Many causes are offered for the recent deterioration in relations by the various players and observers. Whilst most of the causes presented are relevant, the main cause would seem to be the lack of a clear definition of the Egyptian national identity and political community, and the lack of a national consensus on such an identity. Traditionally Islam was the ideology of the state within which the Coptic Christian minority formed a subordinatedhimmi community. For a brief moment from the end of the nineteenth century until the end of the 1920s there seemed to be a process of consensus forming around a secular and liberal Egyptian national identity, as best expressed by the enormously popular nationalist‐liberalWafd party that had pioneered the struggle for Egyptian independence from Britain in the early part of the twentieth century. The rise of Islamic movements since the 1930s, and especially of the fundamentalist resurgence since the 1970s, broke that consensus and pushed Islam again to the fore as the common denominator of the majority, thus leaving the Copts out in the cold. This paper examines the changes in inter‐communal relations and looks at the causes offered for their deterioration, as well as at the views presented by Muslims and Copts on the relevant issues. Historical and contemporary views of self and identity are studied, as well as the views of each community on the religiously ‘other’. The changes in these views over the last decades with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism are seen as a major cause of the worsening relationship. |
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| ISSN: | 0959-6410 |
| Contains: | In: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09596419908721170 |