The ‘Coptic question’ in post-revolutionary Egypt: citizenship, democracy, religion

Relations between the Coptic minority and the Egyptian state have gone through different stages, with Copts experiencing greater or lesser degrees of integration into, or alienationfrom, the social and civil fabric of Egypt. This paper traces the long and ongoing path of theCoptic community from dhimmah to citizenship, a path that is not yet concluded, with a particular focus on the relations between the Copts and Al-Azhar, especially in the transition period opened by the 25 January Revolution. New discourses among both Islamicand Christian intellectuals are examined in order to search out the conceptions of citizen-ship emerging both in Al-Azhar and Islamist scholars’ thought and in Coptic circles.