Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report by Saba Mahmood (review)

Supporters of minority rights in the Middle East have often argued that the “Coptic Question” — to use one of the many expressions indicating deficiencies in political, religious and social rights of the Copts — will only be solved once the state becomes more secular. In Religious Difference in a Secular Age, Saba Mahmood challenges the conventional, Euro-Western centric notions of secularism to argue that “the incommensurability of non-western (deficient) and western secularism (accomplished) fails to grasp how secularity structures the practice of religion in polities like Egypt” (p. 7). The secular state is not a neutral arbiter of religious difference; in fact Mahmood argues that it systematically produces disparity between majorities and minorities (p. 22). Her examination of Egypt’s postcolonial state demonstrates that rather than provide more rights for minorities, the state has weakened Coptic and Bahai rights by subsuming them. This, she argues, is less a reflection of the failure of secularism, but rather a product of how secular discourse pervades Western society.

Based on fieldwork in Egypt between 2008 and 2013, the book looks at how political secularism — the modern state’s relationship to religion and the way that it regulates religious practice — plays a role in enhancing religious divides in Egypt. Part one of the book provides some historical context by examining the genealogical developments of religious liberty and minority rights. A comparison of political representation of minorities in 1920 and 2012 is used to demonstrate how there has been a marked shift. While this is a revealing discussion, a less genealogical approach, where emphasis is not merely on the concepts of liberty and minority rights at two moments in time, but also what affected changes in policies and attitudes, would have strengthened this chapter. For historians, and others who have worked on the Copts in recent years, this is not simply an exercise in narrative, but also a question of contingency. Mahmood is keenly aware that the line between religion and politics, public and private, is constantly subjected to legal and political contestation. However, it is only through questions such as when and why a shift occurred — in this case through an examination of liberty and minority rights — that one can truly understand the development of religious difference in modern Egypt. This lack of emphasis on contingency also characterizes chapter 2, although Mahmood does convincingly argue that the consolidation of the militarized state, along with the emergence of a neoliberal economy, is a central component to understanding the current social, political and religious landscape in Egypt. This shows very clearly that the state has increased polarization highlighting religious difference to further its goals.

The second part of the book uses three case studies to illustrate the management of religious difference and demonstrate how the institutionalization of five ideas (political rights; religious rights; minority rights; minority rights and public order; and legal distinctions in the public and private spheres) has been used by the state. In chapter 3, she argues that interreligious conflict, particularly over marriage, highlights how the Egyptian modern secular state has privatized family and religion (particularly in issues of personal status). In doing so, it has actually strengthened the position of the Church and consequently, the Coptic religious hierarchy has increased its hold over matters concerning gender. Using the prominent examples of Kamiliya Shahhata and Wafa’ Qustantin (pp. 111–15), Mahmood argues that the practice of family law has come to bear an inordinate weight in the reproduction and preservation of religious identity (p. 147). In chapter 4, Mahmood focuses on the Baha’i minority through an examination of court records. In this case study, she shows that the concept of public order — a key feature in the institutionalization of political secularism — is used by the state to deny Baha’is the right to practice their religion openly. The context is that until 2006, the Egyptian state only recognized three religious communities, Muslims, Christians, and Jews. One way this was...