The Copts in Modern Egypt

Over the past century Egypt has known modernisation projects that differed in their orientations, shifting from quasi-liberal rule, to a system that prohibits political and trade-union freedoms, to a project based on a market economy that adopts the neoliberal perspective. Can one search for a connecting thread in the conditions of the Copts across these different stages? Modernity began with Muhammad Ali, who needed to develop agriculture, establish industries and schools, and employ competent people regardless of religion; this led to the dismantling of the obligations of dhimma, which had prevailed for about 12 centuries, and conscription was imposed on Christians in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. However, this did not automatically lead to equality, because it was a development that took place without an intellectual revolution placing religion in a new position; on the contrary, the influence of religion remained present in any discussion of the rights of the Copts. This study traces the conditions of the Copts over the past two hundred years, in relation to the flaw that marred the successive modernisation projects, and to the role played by Islamist movements since the late nineteenth century, movements that saw modernity as a source of corruption and put forward the necessity of returning to the sources.