Current Analysis

The Subversive Power of Grief

One need not cast one's mind too far back to see that both the Egyptian government and the Coptic Orthodox Church are worried more about the December 11 church bombing's destabilizing potential than about the national unity they spoke of during the state-run funeral.

Paul Sedra • 3 min read

Current Analysis

Copts Denounce Islamophobia

In the wake of the lethal rocket attack on State Department personnel in Benghazi, and salafi protesters’ assault upon the US Embassy in Cairo, Egyptian blogger Zeinobia draws attention [http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-protest-that-everybody-ignored.html] to “the protest that ever

• 3 min read

Current Analysis

Egypt's Bloody Sunday

At first, it looked like a repeat of the worst state brutality during the January 25 uprisings that unseated the ex-president of Egypt, Husni Mubarak: On Sunday, October 9, security forces deployed tear gas, live bullets and armored vehicles in an effort to disperse peaceful protesters in downtown C

Mariz Tadros • 15 min read

MER Article

Sectarianism and Its Discontents in Post-Mubarak Egypt

The complex Muslim-Christian relations of post-Mubarak Egypt are perhaps best glimpsed through five distinct reactions to the May 7, 2011 attacks on two churches in Imbaba, a poor quarter of Cairo, that left 15 dead and over 200 injured. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced that those r

Mariz Tadros • 16 min read

Current Analysis

A State of Sectarian Denial

On the afternoon of January 6, a number of youths found a suspicious-looking cardboard box inside the Church of St. Antonious in the Upper Egyptian city of Minya. From its appearance, the box seemed to contain explosives, so the youths slowly removed it from the church, placing it in the middle of t

Mariz Tadros • 15 min read

Current Analysis

Behind Egypt's Deep Red Lines

For six weeks, Egypt has been sitting on top of a sectarian volcano. Protesters, men and women, have been exiting mosques following prayers almost every single Friday since the beginning of September to demand the “release” of Camillia Shehata, a Coptic priest’s wife who they believe has converted t

Mariz Tadros • 14 min read

Current Analysis

The Sectarian Incident That Won't Go Away

When violence breaks out between Egypt’s Muslim majority and Coptic Christian minority, the Egyptian government is normally quick to deny that the motive could be sectarian. Spokesmen point to “foreign fingers” that are supposedly stirring up sedition, in hopes that the file on the incident can be c

Mariz Tadros • 13 min read

Current Analysis

The Emergence of a “Coptic Question” in Egypt

In the early morning of April 14, 2006, Mahmoud Salah al-Din Abd al-Raziq, a Muslim, entered the church of Mar Girgis (Saint George) in Alexandria’s al-Hadra district and stabbed three parishioners who had gathered for a service. Abd al-Raziq then proceeded to attack worshippers at two other churche

(Author not identified) • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Frosty Reception for US Religious Freedom Commission in Egypt

What if you had a party and no one came? On March 22, members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)—visiting Cairo on a fact-finding tour—waited in vain for members of Egyptian political parties and civil society groups to arrive at the commission's

Vickie Langohr • 7 min read

MER Article

Copts in the "Egyptian Fabric"

To talk about Egyptian Christians as a “minority” is to open a can of worms. The sensitivity of the relationship between Egyptian Muslims and Christians was evident in 1994 when a conference on minorities in the Middle East, supposed to be held in Cairo, included the Copts of Egypt on its agenda. [1

Karim El-Gawhary • 6 min read