Blackwell Reference Online

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The Copts are the largest Christian community in the Arab world ( see coptic christianity ), numbering at least four times as many as the Christians in Lebanon, and make up about 15 per cent of the Egyptian population. Coptic involvement in the political and social life of Egypt goes back to the establishment of modern Egypt in the nineteenth century by Mohammed Ali, before the British occupation in 1882. Religious tensions in Egypt between Christians and Muslims have often been marked by the burning of churches, executions of Christians, confiscation of private property and forced conversions to Islam. These phenomena are not new and have been part of the history of the Coptic church since the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century. But it is equally true to say that there have also been periods of tolerance. July 1952 witnessed the coup by the ‘Free Officers’, none of whom was a Christian and some of whom were followers of the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood established by Hassan al-Banna in 1928. President Nasser of Egypt (d. 1970) was a secularized Muslim. Nasser, like all military leaders, did not trust secret organizations, especially those with an underground paramilitary wing. The Muslim Brotherhood was responsible for the assassination of the Egyptian minister al-Noqrashy and others; an unsuccessful attempt on Nasser's life in 1954 was attributed to them. Use ... log in or subscribe to read full text