Religion

Paradoxes of "Religious Freedom" in Egypt

The place of religion in the political order is arguably the most contentious issue in post-Mubarak Egypt. With Islamist-oriented parties controlling over 70 percent of seats in the new People’s Assembly and the constitution-writing process about to begin, liberals and leftists are apprehensive about the implications for Egyptian law and society, including the rights of Egypt’s millions of Coptic Christians. Mindful of these anxieties and pragmatic in its approach, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and ...

Scandalous Flag Incident at Mannouba University: A Wake-up Call

The March 7th events at the University of Mannouba in Tunis drew my attention this week: could this be a wake-up call? A salafi who is not a student at the university took down the Tunisian flag from the rooftop of the university and replaced it with the salafi black flag – inscribed in Arabic with la ilaha illa Allah Muhammad rasul Allah (“There is no God but God and Muhammad is His prophet”). We Tunisians say this phrase many times a day; when we are surprised for ...

The Pope's Predicament

Just over ten years ago, before the illness that took his life today had sapped his body’s strength, I had the opportunity to meet with Pope Shenouda III, the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church. It was September 2001, only a matter of days after the September 11 attacks, and I was in Egypt beginning a year’s worth of dissertation research. My father had opted to travel with me, to help me settle into the rhythms of life in Cairo. I was delighted with this, not so much for the advice ...

Queering the Qur’an? Sacred Ripping and the Holy Homonationalism

It may be hard to imagine that here, in the hot and humid Texas, being queer is “cool.” Believe it or not, Houston has a lesbian mayor and one of the first transgender judges in the nation. Hell, if it was not for the rest of Texas, gay marriage could possibly be legal in the land of Lawrence vs. Texas. But, the “feel-good” hegemonic queer culture in Houston is at best an epitome of American exceptionalism with an intense love for gay/queer normativity, or what Lisa Duggan has termed homonormativity. In ...

Islamophobia For Office

Prophetic Politics: Charting a Healthy Role for Religion in Public Life

Walter Brueggemann, The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipatory Word. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012. Does God take sides in the elections? Is there a voters’ guide hiding in our holy books? Should we pray for electoral inspiration? Secular people tend to answer an emphatic “NO” to those questions, as do most progressive religious folk. Because religious fundamentalists so often present an easy-to-caricature version of faith-based politics—even to the point of implying that God ...

American Elections Watch 1: Rick Santorum and The Dangers of Theocracy

One day after returning to the United States after a trip to Lebanon, I watched the latest Republican Presidential Primary Debate. Unsurprisingly, Iran loomed large in questions related to foreign policy. One by one (with the exception of Ron Paul) the candidates repeated President Obama's demand that Iran not block access to the Strait of Hormuz and allow the shipping of oil across this strategic waterway. Watching them, I was reminded of Israel's demand that Lebanon not exploit its own water resources ...

The "Maspero Crime": Accounts Against the Counter-Revolution’s Power, Media, and Religion

At that point, I was alone, and so I began to walk back to Tahrir. Someone saw me tweeting and came to me. He asked me my name. So I said, “Hani Sobhi.” He then grabbed my wrists to see if I had a cross tattoo. And when he did not find one, he asked for my full name. I said, “Hani Sobhi Bushra.” He asked me if I was a Muslim or a Christian, and I said I was a Christian. Hani Bushra’s Facebook Testimony, 8:54 am, 9 October 2011 It was Sunday night, the 9th of October, when a peaceful group of Christian ...

Two Hands Clapping: the Double Logic of Counter-Revolution

On 23 January 2011, President Hosni Mubarak strolled to the podium of Egypt’s ornate police academy auditorium to deliver his annual Police Day address. Just five days later, after a great wave of popular protests had all but shattered the very security forces he had come to celebrate, Mubarak would appear on television in the guise of a weary and disappointed father, grasping to comprehend the treachery of his beloved children. But in this his last public address before the outbreak of revolution, ...

New Texts Out Now: Paul Sedra, "From Mission to Modernity"

Paul Sedra, From Mission to Modernity: Evangelicals, Reformers and Education in Nineteenth Century Egypt. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011. Jadaliyya: What made you write this book? Paul Sedra: As an undergraduate, I had a strong interest in contemporary relations between Coptic Christians and Muslims in Egypt, and decided to write a senior thesis on the topic. The only problem was that the literature, particularly that in English, was terribly underdeveloped. Generally speaking, there was almost no ...

USAlafis?

A radical Christian group appeared at the Arab American Festival in Dearborn, MI (June 18-20), carrying offensive signs and uttering derogatory language. One of its members instigated a fight and the police ordered the group to remove itself to cheers from the crowd. Enjoy!

The Politics of Reconciliation: Secularism and Tolerance

Looking at recent events in Iran, we may contrast the predominant views of Green Movement activists participating inside Iran and the attitudes of many Iranians observing these events from abroad. Iranians inside Iran show no strong interest in defining the movement in totalizing terms as either Islamic or secular, and nor do they oppose the movement to secularism or Islam. By contrast, many Iranian intellectuals and activists outside of Iran (and other interested intellectuals) are visibly eager to ...