Oksident (Dec 2020)

1952 Mısır Devrimi’nden Arap Baharı’na Kadar Geçen Süreçte Kıptîler/Copts in the Period from the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 to the Arab Spring

  • Ekrem Sert,
  • Ahmet Güç

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4394475
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 2
pp. 193 – 219

Abstract

Read online

The Egyptian Orthodox Coptic Church initially supported the July Revolution of 1952, based on Arab nationalism. However, the lack of representation of Coptics within the Revolutionary Council in the postrevolutionary period has slowly moved the Copts away from elective politics and took them to a policy that puts the Church at the center. In the period of Anwar Sadat (1971- 1981), state-church relations progressively deteriorated. The tension between the regime and the Church increased with the anti-governmental attitudes and decisions of Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Church (1971-2012). The understanding of religion-state separation of the Coptic Church, which has continued for centuries, has been discussed in this process. With Hosni Mubarak's (1981-2011) period, the Coptic Christians' condition relatively improved. However, after the end of Mubarak's period due to the popular uprisings, the Copts felt unprotected and abandoned. As an institution, the Coptic Church opposed the uprisings during the protests known as the "Arab Spring." The Egyptian people's quest for freedom seems to be delayed to another spring. It will exceed the limits of an article to cover the entire two thousand years of the Copts and the Coptic Church's long history. Hence, the article deals only with the last seventyyear period that started with a military coup.

Keywords