The question of whether Egypt is a secular state is a complex one, deeply intertwined with the country's history, political landscape, and social fabric. While the constitution specifies Islam as the state religion and the principles of sharia as the main source of legislation, it also guarantees freedom of belief and prohibits discrimination based on religion. This creates a delicate balance between religious influence and secular principles in Egyptian society.
To understand the current situation, it's essential to examine the historical context and the evolving relationship between religion and the state in Egypt.
Historical Overview
Egypt's religious history spans millennia, evolving from ancient polytheism to Christianity and later Islam. Despite the customary division of Egyptian history into discrete eras, Ancient Egypt, Greco-Roman, and Islamic Egypt, strong threads of continuity run through Egypt's religious and cultural life.
Many popular customs, rites, and beliefs practiced today, such as funerary laments and practices, rural food traditions, and concepts of the afterlife, can be traced to ancient Egyptian origins, often unconsciously preserved beneath new religious forms. From bread baked in the sun to ritual mourning gestures and vernacular expressions, elements of ancient culture have persisted through centuries of conquest, conversion, and change.
Christianity arrived in the first century CE. Roman persecution shaped a distinct Coptic tradition. By the fourth century, tensions with other centers of Christianity emerged.
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The conquest was led by Amr ibn al-As, a close companion of the Prophet Muhammad, completing the conquest of the country by 647 CE. Under Muslim rule, Christians and Jews were recognized as People of the Book and granted protected status as dhimmis. In return for this protection, they were required to pay a special tax called jizya which exempted them from military service. Though conversion was not initially forced, the proportion of Muslims increased steadily.
The Mamluks, a military caste originally formed of enslaved soldiers under Ayyubid rule, eventually seized power and governed Egypt until the Ottoman conquest in 1517.
Egypt's first experience of secularism started with the British Occupation (1882-1922), the atmosphere which allowed the protection of debate. In this environment pro-secularist intellectuals like Yaqub Sarruf, Faris Nimr, Nicola Haddad who sought political asylum from Ottoman Rule were able to publish their work.
By 1919 Egypt had its first political secular entity called the Hizb 'Almani (Secular Party) - this name was later changed to the Wafd Party. It combined secular policies with a nationalist agenda and had the majority support in the following years against both the rule of the king and the British influence. The Wafd party supported the allies during World War II and then proceeded to win the 1952 parliamentary elections.
Following these elections, the prime minister was overthrown by the King, leading to riots. Following the death of Nasser, President Anwar Sadat (1970-1981) continued economic liberalization and maintained the government's secularist policy, even going as far as signing peace agreements with Israel which was a first for any Middle Eastern country.
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Following the Egyptian revolution of 2011 as part of the regional Arab Spring protests, Mubarak was ousted and the following year Mohamed Morsi who is backed by the Muslim Brotherhood won Egypt's first democratic elections.
The Rise of Political Islam
Arab political and social thought in the 1960s was dominated by secular conceptions, including Arab nationalism, Arab socialism and Marxism. Even after the 1967 war, when the attraction of these ideologies began to wane, the immediate “self-criticism after the defeat” maintained a militantly secular and revolutionary stance.
In the decade after 1967, political Islam emerged as an important force. In some countries in the 1970s, such as Egypt under Sadat, regimes encouraged this trend. The growing strength of the Islamist camp in Egypt has infused political discourse in that country with images and slogans deriving from religion. The Muslim Brothers are openly (though not legally) present on the political scene, and other opposition parties are eager to form coalitions with them in order to join the Islamist bandwagon.
A great variety of other Islamist organizations, legal and illegal, put forward a few simple, general demands, such as the application of the shari‘a (religious law). Most political forces -- the ruling party as well as the opposition -- try to assume an “Islamic” coloring. Many political thinkers throughout the Arab East who used to hold secularist views now subscribe to political Islam.
In Egypt, such authors are known as turathiyun judud, “new partisans of the heritage,” meaning the authentic cultural traditions of the Arab-Islamic world and, above all, Islam itself. The most prominent representatives of this trend are Anouar Abdel-Malek, Hasan Hanafi, Muhammad ‘Amara, Khalid Muhammad Khalid, ‘Adil Husain and Tariq al-Bishri.
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These authors do not form a school of thought or a homogeneous trend. Their common denominator is a turn towards political Islam, interpreting Islam as the core of an “Eastern” heritage which they must defend against Western cultural imperialism and nourish as the necessary basis of any development. Contributions by the “heritage partisans” appear quite often in the Arabic quarterly Al-Hiwar (Dialogue) published in Vienna.
The Debate on Secularism
For quite a while, nobody dared to challenge this view openly. Any criticism was implicit and cautious, lest “Islamic” sensitivities be offended. Outspoken secularism is no longer an unknown phenomenon in Egypt. It consists of basically four authors, whom one influential journalist has even called “secularist extremists” and proponents of “the secularist jihad,” thereby drawing a parallel to the underground Islamist extremists.
The four are Fu’ad Zakariyya, a philosophy professor teaching at Kuwait University; Husain Ahmad Amin, Egyptian ambassador to Algeria; Muhammad Nur Farahat, a lawyer and the head of the research center of the Arab Lawyers’ Union; and Farag ‘Ali Fuda, an agrarian engineer. They, too, do not form a school. They hold varying opinions. But they are all moved by the danger they see in the growing power of political Islam, and they have seen fit to tackle the problem directly. They have a platform in the journal Fikr (Thought), which has already devoted three issues (#4,7,8) to the debate about secularism.
Fuda’s main idea is that there are now in Egypt two mutually exclusive points of view regarding the character and future course of Egyptian society. One perspective is that Egyptian society is pagan (jahili), or at least has deviated from the path of true Islam, and that the appropriate remedy is the immediate application of the shari‘a. The other point of view claims that Egypt is now a truly Islamic country. Giving way to the forces of political Islam, these thinkers say, is very dangerous since it would inevitably lead to a religious state, with the evils that entails. The solution for Egypt’s problems lies not in the shari’a but rather in carefully thought out earthly remedies.
At first glance, the controversy is between two ideologies: are the basic tenets of secularism, calling for the separation and the independence of the political sphere from religion, compatible with Islam? Would this mean Islam's destruction, as the Muslim opponents of secularism maintain? Is Islam “religion and state, Quran and sword,” as the propagandists of political Islam would have it?
Fuda’s position is that there can be an Islam restricted to a creed and to spiritual and moral values. The controversy extends to the broader social and political frameworks corresponding to the two views: a civil, secular state in one case; a religious state in the other. In a secular state, as exists in Egypt, there is room for several positions and opinions, including political Islam. In the state the Islamist forces want, says Fuda, there would be no legitimate place for any opposition.
Fuda begins his argument for the secularist position by stating what exists now: Egypt is a secular state. “Whoever maintains something has to prove it. If we have called for the separation [of religion and politics], our argument lies in the existing conditions.” Far from defending all the aspects of Egypt’s present situation, Fuda maintains only that there are positive aspects that should be defended. If the Islamist radicals had their way, things would not improve but deteriorate.
Fuda pursues the argument: imagine that the state had acquired the thorough Islamic character the radicals are calling for. Preachers in mosques would then directly take stands on political issues, they would influence their audiences in this or that direction. This might well lead to clashes and civil strife, for the Islamist camp is far from united. Today there are many politicized imams; if this does not lead to civil war, it is solely thanks to the fact that they are still operating in the framework of a secular state.
Yet the gravest danger of an Islamic state, in Fuda’s view, would be the destruction of national unity: non-Muslims would be regarded as second-class citizens and discriminated against, confessional strife would flare up and destroy one of the very foundations of a sound political life in Egypt.
But Fuda does not have to extrapolate into the future to argue for secularism: past and present experience is at hand. Most states in 14 centuries of Islamic history have claimed religious legitimacy. Yet that did not lead to the decent conduct of rulers, or their pursuit of the interest of their subjects. On the contrary, tyranny, despotism and autocracy could be upheld all the easier for being cloaked in religious garb.
Even in the 1980s, states such as Sudan under Numairi claimed to apply Islamic rules of government. In this case, a bankrupt regime developed into the naked dictatorship of one man and tried to legitimize all that by cloaking it in the garb of Islam. And all the prominent figures of the Islamist camp in Egypt stood applauding.
Challenges and Current Trends
Religion in Egypt plays a significant role in the country's social structure and is institutionally supported by law. Islam is designated as the state religion of Egypt, although precise figures on religious affiliation are unavailable due to the exclusion of religious data from the 2018 census onwards. As a result, existing statistics are based on estimates provided by religious organizations and independent agencies.
Egypt's religious composition is predominantly Muslim, with Christians representing the largest religious minority. Census data since 1927 has recorded a steady decline in the Christian population, from 8.3% that year to 5.7% by 1996. However, these official figures have been widely disputed. In 2017, Al Ahram and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy estimated the Christian population at 10-15%, while international surveys have reported comparable results.
The constitution specifies Islam as the state religion and the principles of sharia as the main source of legislation. The constitution states that “freedom of belief is absolute” and “the freedom of practicing religious rituals and establishing worship places for the followers of divine [Abrahamic] religions is a right regulated by law.”
The government officially recognizes Sunni Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and allows only their adherents as defined by the government to publicly practice their religion and build houses of worship. The government continued the process of registering unlicensed churches that were built prior to 2017, legalizing the status of 125 such churches during the year.
There were reports during the year of Muslims killing and injuring Copts based on their religious identity. Religious discrimination in private sector hiring continued, according to human rights groups and religious communities, including against the Shia community.
The following table summarizes the religious demographics in Egypt:
| Religion | Percentage of Population (Estimates) |
|---|---|
| Sunni Islam | 90% |
| Christianity (primarily Coptic Orthodox) | 5-15% |
| Shia Islam | Approximately 1% |
| Other (including Jewish, Baha'i, Atheist) | Less than 1% |
According to the Arab barometer, less and less people pray daily or go to the mosques. But can this system last that long? Is El-Sisi losing popularity? Is Egyptian economy losing momentum?
Is Politics REALLY a part of Islam? With Imam Tom Facchine
Unrest in Egypt and the departure of President Hosni Mubarak have raised questions about the role of Islam in political life going forward. Dina Shehata, a Cairo-based expert on Islamists, says it is a misconception to think of Egypt as on the brink of a theocracy. Islam and sharia are already embedded into the Egyptian constitution, she says, and there is a "kind of balance" between the sharia and the civil code.
Shehata contends that Egypt will more likely continue to follow states like Malaysia and Turkey, which have Muslim identities without being fully Islamic. "What most Egyptians are concerned about right now is not whether we build a secular or a religious state, but how to create a democratic state, a sound economy, a just order," she says.
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