Copts and the Security State: Violence, Coercion, and Sectarianism in Contemporary Egypt by Laure Guirguis (review)

Among the growing number of contributions on Muslim-Coptic relations in contemporary Egypt, Laure Guirguis’s work stands out for resolutely putting the question of sectarianism and violence center stage. Guirguis argues that there is an intrinsic relationship between authoritarianism and sectarianism: “The principal feature of Egypt’s authoritarian situation” is the margin of informality between laws and practices, which allows both for the flourishing of arbitrary discrimination and violence and their denial and creates a “reign of fear” (pp. 15–16) that is common to both authoritarianism and sectarianism. To illustrate this point, she has collected an impressive wealth of anecdotal material, especially from the period between the 1970s, when sectarian violence first became a major issue of political concern, and the collapse of the regime of Husni Mubarak in 2011.

In Chapter 1, Guirguis unfolds a panorama of sectarian coercion and violence; manifestations of which range from Islamist attacks on Christians to the dominant role of Islam in images of national unity and to issues of personal status and conversion. In Chapter 2, she turns to Egyptian nationhood, arguing that Muslim and Christian constructions of nationalism and historical memories have increasingly drifted apart since the 1930s. She also observes signs of increasing physical and social segregation and the “closure of private space to the members of the other religion” (p. 57). This leads to a very interesting discussion about the influence of — largely unwritten — rules of purity and impurity in interreligious relations in Egypt. The 2009 swine flu scare and concomitant mass slaughter of Egyptian pigs serve as an ideal case study in this context.

In Chapter 3, Guirguis describes dynamics within the Coptic community sphere, which is dominated by the Coptic Orthodox Church. Her account of Pope Shenouda III as a religious and political leader during the Mubarak years (pp. 75–96) is one of the most compelling sections of the book. Chapter 4 moves on to describe tensions and struggles within the Coptic community. It gives an overview over important oppositional lay movements between the 1950s and the 2000s, which — largely unsuccessfully — campaigned for an empowerment of Copts in national politics and against the domination of the clergy over community affairs. However, this domination is far from monolithic. Charting the rivalries between members of the clergy, Guirguis demonstrates the inability of the patriarchy to impose a unified theological and religious vision on the community. American Protestantism remains an important source of inspiration and innovation for Egyptian Christians, as shown by the recent spread of televangelism and charismatic preaching and healing within the Coptic Orthodox Church.

In Chapter 5, Guirguis discusses Egyptian politics from the regime of Gamal ‘Abd al-Nasser (1954–70) to the aftermath of the 2011 revolt, with a focus on the Mubarak years. She points out sectarian arrangements and undercurrents and describes the difficulties faced by the few significant Coptic politicians during the Mubarak era. She contends that both the governing National Democratic Party and its main rival, the Muslim Brotherhood, used the Copts as a political tool when they found it useful.

Chapter 6 is dedicated to voices and movements that have contested sectarianism in Egyptian politics and how the Mubarak regime managed to discredit and co-opt most of them. Guirguis recounts the important junctures of the post-revolutionary phase and reaches the preliminary conclusion that the politics of the regime of ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi are in continuity with its prerevolutionary predecessors. The situation of the Copts in the context of the Egyptian “security state” is — for the time being — expected to remain within the familiar lines sketched out in the book.

While some of the analyses in the book are brilliant and innovative, Copts and the Security State is not as coherent as the title might suggest. It unfolds a large variety of topics related to the Coptic community in modern Egypt. A comprehensive explanatory framework concerning the...