I. Religions in EgyptII. Rulers and Religious LeadersIII. Importance of Religious LeadersV. Secularism in Egypt and Disruptions of Islamic ContinuityVI. The Islamist Reaction to WesternizationVII. Nasser and the BrothersVIII. Sayyed Qutb and Militant IslamXI. New Repression of the IslamistsIslam in EgyptBy Rachida El DiwaniFulbright Scholar, Chatham CollegeWoodland Road, Pittsburgh PA 15232February 2003I. Religions in EgyptIslam plays a major role in Egypt today. About 90% (58,500,000) of the population ofmodern Egypt is Sunni Muslims. There are several religious minorities, the largest of which is anindigenous Christian minority constituting the Coptic Church. The Copts represent about 9%(5,850,000) of the population and the remainder 1% includes followers of the Greek OrthodoxChurch (360,000), Eastern and Latin Rite Catholics (185,000), Protestants (210,000). In addition,an estimated 1000 Jews remained in Egypt as of 1990 (the eldest). This Jewish populationrepresents a fragment of the community of 80,000 Jews who lived in Egypt before 1948. Religious tolerance has been a hallmark of traditional Egyptian culture. The EgyptianConstitution of 1971 guarantees freedom of religion, although some tensions along religiouslines have risen since 1970 (Because of political reasons, the Muslims being oppressed and notthe Christians backed by the West – the Christians enjoy much more freedom of action insidetheir churches than the Muslims inside their mosques).The centrality of religion in defining Egypt is deeply rooted historically. When theexpanding empire of Islam incorporated Egypt, then a Byzantine province, in the middle of the7th century [by the end of the reign of the second Caliph, Omar ibn al Khattab (634-644)], Islamfound a fertile soil in Egypt where religion had taken different forms through a succession ofpharaonic dynasties and foreign conquerors, but it always remained a key element of politicalculture.The Arab conquest gave this inherited religious bond a distinctive Islamic form. The newfaith invited Muslims as a collective body to express their faith by founding a community ofbelievers or Ummah.II. Rulers and Religious LeadersThe Quran, the Word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and the Sunna, thetraditions of the Prophet himself provided guidance for personal salvation and moral basis for agood society. Rulers were thus impelled to rely not only on men of power but also on men ofintellect and faith who could mediate between the timeless revelation of Islam and the exigenciesof specific times and places. Power rested with the rulers and their military supporters, butlegitimacy derived from the religious scholars or “Ulama”, who emerged as the guardians of thelegacy and the guarantors of right guidance. In theory, and despite deviations in practice, onlyIslamic law (Shari3ah) elaborated by the scholars from the principles of the Quran and thetraditions of the Prophet could bind the new community while safeguarding its distinctive moralpurpose.Alongside the Ulamas, the religious scholars, came to existence other religious leaders, the“Sufi” order. Alongside the austere religious mind and laws of the Ulama arose an Islamicmysticism “Sufism”, which gave more importance to love and feelings than to laws and mind.The Sufi movement that sometimes degenerated in superstitions and too much veneration for sufiorder’s saints on the expenses of the pure monotheism preached by the official Islam, attracted agood number of Egyptians.1III. Importance of Religious LeadersWhen the hold of early Muslim Empires weakened and local dynasties rose in Egypt,religious leaders retained their importance as a powerful social and spiritual force enjoying therespect and support of the population.The Al Azhar was founded in 970 as a mosque and university and assured Cairo a secureplace in the spiritual and intellectual firmament of Islam.The Ottomans annexed Egypt in 1517 and made it part of the last great Islamic Empire.The Ulama flourished and from their base in the Al Azhar, played an important role in theIslamic life:1. They organized a national network of religious education preserving thus a denseIslamic culture that linked socially and morally Cairo and the provinces. 2. The religious scholars figured prominently in the political crises experienced by Egypt.They used to intervene between ordinary Egyptians and their Ottoman rulers. Theyintervened also between the French of Napoleon (Campaign in 1789-1801) and theEgyptian people to prevent too much blood shedding.3. After the French left Egypt, the Ulama played a critical role in bringing into powerMuhammad Ali, the Albanian officer who founded modern Egypt and established in1802 the dynasty that held power until the revolution of 1952. The Ulama supportedMuhammad Ali on the condition that he rules with their consultation. When he agreed,they mobilized the population of Cairo to demonstrate against the Ottoman governor,calling successfully on the Sultan to ratify the choice of Muhammad Ali as governor ofEgypt. Having consolidated his power, he moved against the Ulama and limited theirinfluence. Though weakened, the Ulama continued to exert from Al Azhar a powerfulreligious and cultural influence. And later on when the British, alarmed by the Egyptianmilitary success in the Levant and by the creation of the industrial base in Egypt,defeated Egypt and made it signing the Treaty of London in 1840, which imposedweakness on the country, the Ulama assumed a renewed importance. They provided areservoir of intellectual, cultural and religious opposition to the interference of theBritish with the interior affairs of the Egyptians. IV. British Colonization of Egypt and Religious Feelings In 1882, England occupied Egypt after having crushed the Urabi’s Revolution in 1881against the corrupted and unfair monarchy. This occupation ended effectively in 1954. In theirbattle against the colonizer, the masses always felt strong solidarity with the Ulama even whenthey were speaking for the secular interest of the nation and they responded most dramatically tothe calls of political figures when their calls were expressed in Islamic terms.The resistance until after World War I remained securely anchored in Islamic structures ofthought and civilization, while weaving together diverse patterns of anti-colonial