Abstract
AbstractTheArabSpring protests that brought massive and largely unforeseen political change toEgypt included all sectors of society, including theEgyptianChristian population, known asCopts.Copts participated in large numbers in the protests that brought about regime change inFebruary 2011, but the broader implications of the revolution toCopts are unclear. In this essay,Iaddress the changes inChristian–Muslim relations that attended the development of a new republican regime inEgypt as a result of theArabSpring. While the former regime of PresidentHosniMubarak had formed a stable elite partnership with the hierarchy of theCopticOrthodoxChurch (a “neo‐millet” system), the 2011 revolution contributed to the erosion of this partnership in favor of a republican and pluralist model of citizenship in which individualCopts represent their own interests. The increasingly assertive public role of lay movements amongCopts, coupled with the death of theCopticPatriarch (pope) and his replacement by a younger successor, points to the continued erosion of the elite partnership in favor of the new model. Time will tell whether or not pluralist representation or a retrenched corporatism that favors the church will dominateChristian–Muslim relations inEgypt into the future.
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