Policing Copts: Sadat, Shenouda, and the Transnational Diaspora Politics of Cold War Egypt

Abstract

When Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat had the head of the Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, interned in a desert monastery for "sectarian sedition" in 1981, Copts in the diaspora mobilized. The Egyptian state subsequently demonized Coptic activists and enmeshed itself into the Church's transnational affairs, revealing how the Sadat regime circumscribed Egyptian citizenship, even for those abroad. Examining American court documents, Church records, and Coptic diaspora publications juxtaposed with Egyptian state media, this article surveys the role of diaspora activists in Cold War Egypt.