Institut d’études islamiques, Université Libre de Berlin Sciences politiques

Activités

 Thèse de doctorat, sous la direction de Gudrün Kramer : Unity of Cross and Crescent or Minority Status ? Reflexions of Coptic intellectuals on the future of Egyptian Christians between Church, State, and Islam, commencée en sept. 2006, Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

 2007-2008 : Lecturer, Undergraduate-level seminar on « The Islamization of Muslim Societies », Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

Problématique de la thèse

Between Citizenship and Islamisation. The ‘Coptic Issue’ in Egypt and the Political Visions of Coptic Intellectuals

The subject of my Ph.D. project is the situation and future of the Christian minority in Egypt, the Copts, as seen from the perspective of Coptic political thinkers. Discussion among Coptic intellectuals focuses on the role of Islam in politics and society, reform of the Egyptian polity, the safeguarding of the social and political integration of the Copts, and the role of the Coptic Orthodox Church. This discussion will be analysed on the background of a comprehensive examination of the historical genesis of the ‘Coptic issue’ in modern Egypt and the public discourses that contribute to its conceptual and political ‘framing’ in 21stcentury Egypt.

A preliminary introduction into the scientific discussion about religious minorities will help to consider the political though of Coptic intellectuals in a global context and open up the perspective for comparisons with other countries.

In the first chapter, I will provide an account of the social, economic, and political history of the Coptic population, based on recent scholarship on Egyptian history. The account will be structured topically, stressing the analysis of major developments and their impact, with sub-headings such as “Changing Social Status of Indigenous Muslims and Christians, 1805-1860”, “The Copts and the Foreign Missions, 1850-1914”, “Copts and the National Movement, 1875-1923”, “The Reform Struggle within the Coptic Community, 1870-1952”, “A Golden Age ? Religion, Sectarianism, and Liberal Equality, 1923-1952”, “Muslim and Coptic Religious Revivalism, 1930-1970”, “The Republican Regime and the Copts, 1952-2008”, or “Islamization, Islamist politics, and the Copts, 1970-2008”.

In chapter two, I will analyse aspects of contemporary political discourses in Egypt relevant to the Coptic issue and the power structures that are related to them. The first discourse is centred around the concepts of national unity, public order, and the threat of foreign conspiracy, which is connected to the interest of regime and other actors in denying the existence of internal social contradictions or attributing their appearance to manipulation from outside.

This discourse has for a long time structured the discussion about the identity of the Copts, about legal, institutional, and social problems of religious discrimination, and about the various phenomena of social conflict and discord lumped together under the label “fitna”. It has been used to repress considerations highlighted by a second discourse, namely the one about democracy and human rights. This discourse, although having been adopted during the last decades by most actors in the Egyptian public sphere, including intellectuals of all colours, the regime, and the Muslim Brotherhood, has so far had relatively little effect on power structures.

A third discourse of sectarian polemics, emotionally charged statements criticizing, rejecting, or debasing the respective religious ‘Other’, deemed as politically incorrect in the official discourse of national unity, has long lived a rather obscure life in Islamist pamphlets and sermons or the anti-Islamic diatribes of certain diaspora Copts, but has recently benefited form the liberalization of the Egyptian media and the internet. Finally, I shall have a look at the discourse about the social and political role of the Orthodox Church and the way it tries to protect, support, and control its adherents.

In the third and final chapter, I will examine and discuss the political visions of a number of important political thinkers among the Copts in the present period (William Sulaimān Qilāda, Samīr Murqus, Rafīq Ḥabīb, and ʿĀdil Ǧindī), point out the different solutions to the minority problem that they are envisioning and close by situating their ideas within the global discussion on minorities, democracy, human rights, cultural identity etc.

Publications

 « Between Ideology and Pragmatism : Fathi Yakan’s Theory of Islamic Activism », Die Welt des Islams 47, 3-4, p. 376-402.

 « Fathi Yakan - Islamistischer Intellektueller und Aktivist, Gründungsvater des sunnitischen Islamismus im Libanon », Orient IV/2007, p. 64-71.

 « Fathi Yakans - Theorie des islamischen Aktivismus » (M.A. Thesis, 2005, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany). Online on www.zmo.de.