Between Terror and Tolerance: Religious Leaders, Conflict, and Peacemaking

CHAPTER 5 Egypt and the Legacy of Sectarianism

85 ChapTEr 5 Egypt and the Legacy of Sectarianism l SCoTT W. hibbarD On January 6, 2010, three Muslim men armed with automatic weapons shot Christian worshipers as they left services celebrating the Orthodox Christmas Eve. Seven people were killed and several others wounded. The assault took place in Nag Hammadi, a city in upper (southern) Egypt, where tensions between the Muslim majority and Coptic Christian minority have long been an issue. Although the Egyptian government downplayed the sectarian motivations— arguing this was simply a criminal act—the attack sparked riots and intercommunal clashes in surrounding areas. It also shocked Christians throughout the country, resurrecting long-standing questions about their status in Egyptian society . Are Coptic Christians truly members of the Egyptian nation, or are they second-class citizens whose religion makes them a suspect population within a predominantly Muslim society? The irony is that Egypt is not typically perceived as a “deeply divided” society , let alone a multiethnic one. This is because such tensions are relatively new. Animosity between Christian and Muslim is not endemic in Egyptian society,nor does it reflect “ancient hatreds.”On the contrary, the denigration of Egypt’s Coptic minority is a relatively recent phenomenon that corresponds with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country since the 1970s.1 To this end, the sectarianism of recent years reflects a changing attitude of both state and society toward religious tolerance and the norms of cosmopolitan citizenship. How this trend unfolded—and the role of political and religious elites in redefining the basis of national identity—is the subject of this chapter. In the early and mid-twentieth century, Egyptian citizenship and identity was not rooted in religion but rather in a common language, culture, and history. Even during the Nasser era—which was very much anti-Western and illiberal in ScoTT W. hibbarD 86 that sense—there was a conscious effort by government leaders to construct a religiously inclusive basis of social life. This was manifest in the liberal, and secular, vision of Arab nationalism. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, state policies toward religion, nationalism, and citizenship changed. During this latter period Anwar Sadat,Abdel Nasser’s successor,abandoned the secular project and sought to chart a new direction for the country (Hibbard 2010). In doing so, the Sadat regime used the mechanisms of the modern state to promote a Saudi-inspired salafist (or fundamentalist) Islam in Egyptian public life.2 The regime’s support for an exclusive vision of religion was part of a larger effort to redefine the basis of state authority, one rooted in Islam, not Arab (or secular) nationalism. The implications of these policies are evident in today’s sectarianism. By embracing an overtly Islamic—and illiberal—vision of the nation,Egyptian political and religious elites undermined traditional conceptions of religious tolerance and, with it, the corresponding “rights . . . [to] participation and equal citizenship” that are the hallmark of an open society (Abdel-Fattah 1994, 19). The result is evident in discriminatory treatment of the Coptic minority and in the violence that has been directed toward them in recent years.The government’s continuing support for an exclusive vision of religion and society has also affected intellectual and artistic freedom as well as the role of women in society as the misogynistic elements of Saudi culture have become equated with Islamic tradition. This chapter examines these issues in their historical context. The primary focus is the changing attitudes of state (and religious) elites toward competing visions of religion and nation. The first part of this chapter traces the evolution of debates over religion and public life through the early twentieth century. At the heart of this debate is an ongoing question about whether one religion ought to be given precedence in the institutions of nation and state, or whether these institutions should be nondiscriminatory regarding matters of faith. In other words, should Egypt have a religious or secular state? The chapter also looks at the manner in which different leaders sought to answer this question, and how this changed over time.The latter part of the narrative then examines the implications of the state’s support for an illiberal religious nationalism upon such issues as intellectual freedom, religious tolerance, and the Christian minority. ThE riSE aND FaLL oF SECuLariSm iN EGypT The question of religion in public life—that is, how to define the nation—has been a subject of debate in Egypt for much of the past two centuries. During...