28th of March 2016
2B. Introduction
Egypt is one of the few countries in the world that is mentioned in the Scriptures several times. There Moses the prophet was born and bred. Moreover, to there, after the birth of the promised Messiah, Jesus fled from Herod's persecution. There labored the early Christian hermits, who became the founders of monasticism. Today, this ancient country is in a difficult political environment, compounded by the religious factor that causes instability in the whole region. Throughout history Egypt saw many religions becoming a national policy, however, never before has one religion overpowered others and was as superior to Christianity, Judaism as Islam is right now. Despite the seeming democracy and guaranteed by the new Constitution freedom of religious belief, the situation is continued to be aggravated by the people themselves not wishing to understand and respect the position and beliefs of others frequently leading to grave consequences, thus allowing history to repeat itself.
2C. Outline
2C (1). Religious Parties and Development of Religion in Egypt throughout the Ages
In ancient Egypt, there was a semblance of a common religion; however, there also was a great variety of local cults dedicated to specific deities. Most of them had henotheistic character (they focused on the worshipping of one god while at the same time recognizing other deities), and, therefore, the Egyptian religion is seen as polytheistic. There were also short-lived small cults, such as Atenism, which can be regarded as monotheistic. Christianity, which has replaced the Egyptian religion, characterized it as a form of paganism. Similarly, the term referred to its followers as Kemetism, which is a modern version of the ancient Egyptian religion.
Since the time of the Arab conquest, the most widespread religion in Egypt has become Islam. Nowadays it enjoys the status of a state religion and still largely determines the legal structure of the state. Islam is practiced by about 90 percent of Egyptians. The vast majority of them are Sunnis, whereas Shiites make up less than one percent of the population.
Before the eastern campaign of Napoleon’s army in the late 18th century, almost all the legal and social issues were the responsibility of the Muslim clergy of Egypt. In a country dominated by religious education, the courts had acted strictly according to Sharia law. Today, Egypt’s constitution guarantees full freedom of religion. Religious services of the Gentiles are not considered a violation of Sharia, which remains the basis of the legal system. However, non-Muslims are faced with certain restrictions, for example, in the construction of churches and synagogues.
Christianity spread in Egypt shortly after its inception. It is believed that St. Mark, the author of one of the four canonical Gospels brought it to the Egyptians. Today, Christians make up about 10 percent of the population. They call themselves the Copts. The word comes from the Greek “egiptos”. Coptic Church exists independently of the Catholic and Orthodox believers. One of its main tenets states that Jesus is only of the divine nature. In the 5th century at the Chalcedon Ecumenical Council, this teaching was considered wrong and inconsistent, which led to a split of opinions.
When the Roman Emperor Constantine ended the persecutions of Christians, their communities were to be found everywhere in Egypt. By the time of the Arab conquest, the vast majority of Egyptians professed Christianity. At the beginning, the Arabs were very tolerant of other faiths, but after a few centuries, they forcibly began to convert them to Islam. Christians were forced to wear heavy crosses around their necks and had special tags burnt out on their hands. Ultimately, the spread of Islam and the Arabic language has led to multiple reductions in the number of Christian communities.
The Third World religion, Judaism, was present in Egypt since the times of the Old Testament. In the north of the country, there is one place considered holy by the Jews. This is Mount Sinai, where Moses received the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments. After the Exodus, the Jews did not settle for a long time in the country of the Pharaohs, though maintained trade relations with the Egyptians. In the era of the conquests of Alexander the Great, who captured the entire Middle East, Judaism again spread to North Africa. Jewish communities flourished for centuries in Egypt, maintaining communication with the communities of Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia. After the arrival of Arabs, Jews, like Christians, began to experience a variety of harassment, but, in the end, were able to maintain their religious independence. By the beginning of World War II, in Egypt, there were about 60 thousand Jews. After the formation of Israel and the beginning of the repatriation, their numbers declined sharply, particularly during the Arab-Israeli wars. Today, Judaism is professed by an extremely small part of the Egyptian population.
2C (2). Radical Islam in Power in Egypt in the face of the “Muslim Brotherhood.”
Egypt has adopted a new constitution, which, according to many, opens the door to the domination of Islamic law. From the media it is known that the secular and Christian parties, as well as much influential public and political leaders, have refused to participate in the discussion of the draft of the constitution, believing that it will throw the country into the era of the dark ages.
The number of opponents of radical Islam is enormous. To consider that 10% of the population are the Copts while about 15 million Egyptians belong to Sufi orders, which greatly doubt the “Muslim Brotherhood”. They were joined by a multitude of opponents of Islamization of the country found in the army, in the sphere of education and in culture.
Egyptian society is highly politicized. If earlier relatively few people were interested in policy, today everyone follows the news, reads newspapers and watches TV. Earlier in the Cairo subway, you could see how some people were ostentatiously reading the Quran, and others paid attention to the Gospel. Today, all they talk about is politics. In the case of the continuing crisis, the political struggle in the country will go to another very dangerous phase – people from poor neighborhoods will loot the rich. In this case, a state of emergency may be initiated. Then the “Muslim Brotherhood” will be removed from power.
2C (3). The failure of the “Muslim Brotherhood” and the future of Egypt’s development.
The weakness of the “Muslim Brotherhood” is connected with the fact that it is the most radical Islamist organization existed in the shadows for over 80 years. In Egypt, they were given a historic chance to prove what they were really worth. However, the first few month of their rule has shown that the organization has no sane leaders, no program, no strategy, and no tactics to bring the country out of the crisis. They do not have qualified personnel. All professional people working in state agencies resigned so as not to work with the Mursi government. Thus, it is clear that Egypt in the near future is in wait for a lot of turmoil. Despite the overthrow of Mursi by the militants, it is still not evident how Egypt will develop in the future
2C (4). Religious Holidays as an indicator of the Governmental Loyalties and Future Development of the Country.
The religious holidays have become a sort of indicator of the way things will turn out in the country. Christmas, for example, was always an official holiday in Egypt. Officials of high rank have always attended the Christmas service, which the Coptic Patriarch conducted at the cathedral in Cairo. People saw the President and the prime minister, cabinet members, generals – among them, of course, Muslims to have participated in the service. Even though they were Muslim, they came. Some say to show their respect, however, in reality this is what was expected of them. When Mursi was in power, none of this happened. However, today the new President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi seems to be showing signs of loyalty to his citizens. Despite the new policy of a religious divide to consolidate his power. Extensive security measures were taken so as not to rekindle the conflict based on the religious grounds. The Christmas service was broadcasted live on national television. This holiday in Egypt continues to be perceived as a national festivity.
2C (5). Religious Leaders and their Actions in aggravating the Society causing Turmoil
It is clear that the preservation of peace in the relations between the Christian and Muslim population (especially now in times of change) is the key to the stability of the political situation in Egypt and in the region as a whole. In view of this, there is a danger of artificial fomenting of the sectarian strife and the use of religious feelings of the population as the opponents of the authorities (the instigators of the May riots were openly called counter-revolutionaries). The Egyptian Coptic Catholic community leader Antonios Najib accused the already former President Mubarak in the organization the massacre of Coptic Christians in Alexandria for the purpose of aggravation of the situation in the country. Whereas the former Attorney General of Egypt Abdal Mayid Mahmoud said that the ex-Interior Minister Habib el-Adly has made attempts at organizing sabotage in the Coptic community in Alexandria. This proves that in fact, the regime as well as various organizations and extremist forces, consider the religious factor as a sort of leverage in both internal and foreign relations.
2D. Conclusion
It is clear that the turmoil of the past years is still a long way from ending. However, the relations between the various religious groups within Egypt are on their way to normalizing. Despite the historic process of religious development, oppression of representatives of Islam, Christianity or Judaism, the attempts of various religious leaders and former government officials to instigate an outbreak of violence, the situation today seems to be a little safer. However, the country is far from being called as such where there is total freedom of religion. Though the religious holidays have once again become the indicators of the governmental attitude and relations to religion appear to have become more lenient with the overthrow of Mursi, the new President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has not yet fully unveiled his loyalties. The future development of the country, and in the case of domination of one religion over the other, will show that nothing has changed for the ordinary Egyptian citizens. The new government is yet to prove itself to its citizens and to the world that there actually is freedom of religion in Egypt.
Bibliography
Abdelaal, Mohamed. “Religious Constitutionalism in Egypt: A Case Study.” The Fletcher forum of world affairs. Vol. 37(1). 2013.
Bell, Idris and Walter E. Crum. “Jews and Christians in Egypt. The Jewish Troubles in Alexandria and the Athanasian Controversy.” Journal of Hellenic Studies. Vol. 44 (311). 1924.
Gordon, Cyrus. “Middle Eastern Religion.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2016. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Middle-Eastern-religion
Kirkpatrick, David. “Vow of Freedom of Religion Goes Unkept in Egypt.” The New York Times. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/world/middleeast/egypt-religious-minorities.html?_r=0
Nations Encyclopedia. “Egypt – Religions.” Encyclopedia of the Nations. Retrieved from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Egypt-RELIGIONS.html
Mahmood, Saba. Religious difference in a secular age: a minority report. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016.
Shenker, Jack. “Egypt’s new masters are encouraging a religious divide to consolidate power.” The Guardian. 2015. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/03/egypt-patriarchy-revolution-egyptians-sisi
Tadros, Mariz. Copts at the crossroads: the challenges of building inclusive democracy in contemporary Egypt. Cairo, New York: The American University In Cairo Press, 2013.
