Conquest of Paradise: Secular Binds and Coptic Political Mobilization

Abstract

This article explores conflicts within the Coptic community related to problems of definition and representation. Coptic groups that emerged from Egypt’s 2011 revolution brought these tensions to the fore. Groups such as the prominent Maspero Youth Union (MYU) [Itihad Shabab Maspero] were formed to contest the hegemony of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egyptian national politics. The MYU and others have attempted to reconstruct social boundaries drawn by the Church and the state, promoting political secularism, or the separation of religion from politics, as a solution to inter-communal strife and remedy to intra-communal conflict over the position of the Coptic Orthodox Church as the sole representative of the community. At the same time, the group has emphasized their Coptic identity through religious symbols and imagery at protest events, as depicted at the Maspero memorial march in 2012. While the MYU officially endorsed secular governance as a means to overcome sectarianism, its actions also made visible internal conflicts over the representation of Coptic identity in contemporary Egyptian society. Although the promise of secularism and equal citizenship is not specific to the Coptic or Egyptian context, this article focuses on its paradoxical effects within the Coptic community and its relationship to the state.