From ‘Polytheists' to ‘Partners in the Nation': Islamist Attitudes Towards Coptic Egyptians in Post-revolutionary Egypt (2011-2013)

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Islamist and Salafi organizations, some of them with a violent past, emerged as political actors and displayed a consistent effort to appear as serious and inclusive political contenders. This article studies the attitudes of actors such as the Salafi Nur Party a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hager, Anna (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2018]
In: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Year: 2018, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 289-308
Further subjects:B Salafism
B Islamism
B Minority
B Copts
B Egypt
B Arab Christians
B Arab Spring
B Eastern Christianity
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Islamist and Salafi organizations, some of them with a violent past, emerged as political actors and displayed a consistent effort to appear as serious and inclusive political contenders. This article studies the attitudes of actors such as the Salafi Nur Party and al-Gamāʿa al-Islāmiyya towards Coptic Egyptians in the post-revolutionary phase (2011-2013). It offers a perspective on how these actors navigated between the new political realities and their ideological positions. It argues that Islamist perceptions of the Copts have changed in response to the actions of the latter and that this is pivotal for understanding political attitudes, which seemed at times both moderate and dogmatic, volatile and contradictory. I therefore aim to go beyond the idea of ‘the Copts' as a silent and homogenous minority and instead integrate the new form of Coptic activism which became visible and vocal after 2011. This approach helps towards a better understanding of how ‘the Copts' appeared simultaneously in Salafi political discourses as useful political tools, infidels, enemies and equal citizens.
ISSN:1469-9311
Contains:Enthalten in: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2018.1480337