Islamic State or Secular State? Egypt as a Case Study
Islamic State or Secular State? Egypt as a Case Study

Summary/Abstract: The Christian Egypt (Copts) appreciated the Muslim conquest for stopping the persecution by the Christian Byzantine emperor. Gradually and optionally, many Egyptians converted to Islam in a period of six centuries (from 639 AD to the 12th century). Muslims and Christians lived as neighbours for centuries, with no conflict. To establish the contemporary state, there had been a great debate about making the Egyptian state Islamic or secular. This debate converted to a conflict between the religious, social and political forces in Egypt. This caused a lot of problems and resulted in the loss of the gains of 2011 Egyptian revolution. In this paper, I show the impact of the perspectives of both sides on the democracy in Egypt and on the Egyptian revolution path. Then, I propose a framework to resolve this conflict.

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