The Coptic Orthodox Church, also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt, servicing Africa and the Middle East. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the Pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apostolic See of Saint Mark, who also carries the title of Father of fathers, Shepherd of Shepherds, Ecumenical Judge and the thirteenth among the Apostles. The See of Alexandria is titular, and today, the Coptic Pope presides from Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District in Cairo. The church follows the Coptic Rite for its liturgy, prayer and devotional patrimony. With approximately 25 million members worldwide, it is the country's largest Christian denomination.
The Damascus affair of 1840 refers to the arrest of several notable members of the Jewish community in Damascus on the accusation of murdering Father Thomas, a Christian monk, and his Muslim servant for the purpose of using their blood to bake matzo, an anti-semitic accusation also known as the blood libel.
Hassan Hanafi was a professor and chaired the philosophy department at Cairo University. He was a leading authority on modern Islam.
Gisèle Littman, better known by her pen name Bat Ye'or is an Egyptian-born British author, best known for creating and popularising the Eurabia conspiracy theory in her writings about modern Europe, in which she argues that Islam, anti-Americanism and antisemitism hold sway over European culture and politics as a result of collaboration between radical Muslims elements on one hand, and European political elements on the other. In addition to the Eurabia conspiracy theory, Ye'or has written about modern European politics and the history of Christian and Jewish religious minorities living under Islamic governments. Concerning the later subject, Ye'or has popularised the concept of dhimmitude, which she describes as the "specific social condition that resulted from jihad," and as the "state of fear and insecurity" of "infidels" who are required to "accept a condition of humiliation." Ye'or's theories have been a subject of controversy.
Islam is the dominant religion in Egypt with around an estimated 90.3% of the population. Almost the entirety of Egypt's Muslims are Sunnis, with a very small minority of Shia.Islam has been recognized as the state religion since 1980. Since there has been no religious census, the actual percentage of Muslims is not known: the percentage of Christians are estimated to be between 5 and 15%.
Egyptian Jews constitute both one of the oldest and youngest Jewish communities in the world. The historic core of the Jewish community in Egypt consisted mainly of Egyptian Arabic speaking Rabbanites and Karaites. Though Egypt had its own community of Egyptian Jews, after the Jewish expulsion from Spain more Sephardi and Karaite Jews began to migrate to Egypt, and then their numbers increased significantly with the growth of trading prospects after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. As a result, Jews from many territories of the Ottoman Empire as well as Italy and Greece started to settle in the main cities of Egypt, where they thrived. The Ashkenazi community, mainly confined to Cairo's Darb al-Barabira quarter, began to arrive in the aftermath of the waves of pogroms that hit Europe in the latter part of the 19th century.
Ekmeleddin Mehmet İhsanoğlu is a Turkish academic, diplomat and politician who was Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) from 2004 to 2014. He is also an author and editor of academic journals and advocate of intercultural dialogue.
Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The state religion of Egypt is Islam. Although estimates vary greatly in the absence of official statistics. Since the 2006 census religion has been excluded, and thus available statistics are estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies. The country is majority Sunni Muslim, with the next largest religious group being Coptic Orthodox Christians. The exact numbers are subject to controversy, with Christians alleging that they have been systemically under-counted in existing censuses.
Ahmed Subhy Mansour is an Egyptian American activist, Islamic Quranist scholar dealing with Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics. He founded a small Egyptian Quranist group that is neither Sunni nor Shia, was exiled from Egypt, and lives in the United States as a political refugee.
Forces of the Rashidun Caliphate seized the major Mediterranean port of Alexandria away from the Eastern Roman Empire in the middle of the 7th century AD. Alexandria had been the capital of the Byzantine province of Egypt. This ended Eastern Roman maritime control and economic dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean and thus continued to shift geopolitical power further in favor of the Rashidun Caliphate.
The Monastery of Saint Fana is a Coptic Orthodox monastery. It is named after Saint Fana, also known as Bane, Coptic Christian hermit. The monastery is sometimes called the Monastery of Abu Fanah and is also known as the Monastery of the Cross, due to the presence of many beautifully decorated crosses inside its church.
The persecution of Copts and the discrimination against Coptic Orthodox Christians are historic and widespread issues in Egypt. They are also prominent examples of the poor status of Christians in the Middle East despite the fact that the religion is native to both the country and the region. Copts are the Christ followers in Egypt, usually Oriental Orthodox, who currently make up 15% of the population of Egypt—the largest religious minority of that country. Copts have cited instances of persecution throughout their history and Human Rights Watch has noted "growing religious intolerance" and sectarian violence against Coptic Christians in recent years, as well as a failure by the Egyptian government to effectively investigate properly and prosecute those responsible. Since 2011 hundreds of Egyptian Copts have been killed in sectarian clashes, and many homes, churches and businesses have been destroyed. In just one province (Minya), 77 cases of sectarian attacks on Copts between 2011 and 2016 have been documented by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The abduction and disappearance of Coptic Christian women and girls also remains a serious ongoing problem.
The Center for Arab-West Understanding (CAWU) developed from the ideals of the Egyptian electronic magazine Arab-West Report. The request for Egyptian NGO status was filed in 2004 and obtained in January 2008. The Center is based in Cairo, Egypt.
The Electronic Network for Arab-West Understanding (ENAWU) is a specialized information network that links together a network of think-tanks and information repositories in the West and the Arab world.
The Religious News Service from the Arab World (RNSAW) is the predecessor of the Arab-West Report and provided a weekly electronic digest of Arab Egyptian media, beginning in 1997.
Otto Friedrich August Meinardus was a German Coptologist and pastor who wrote numerous books and articles about Coptic Christianity in Egypt.
Cornelis Hulsman is a Dutch sociologist who has lived for years in Egypt since 1994. He is currently the editor in chief of the Arab-West Report, which is a report that includes a weekly digest of various Egyptian press outlets. Hulsman is further an expert on Egyptian printed media, The Coptic Orthodox Holy Family's tradition, interfaith relations in Egyptian society, and inter-cultural understanding in the Arab world. Hulsman has been a correspondent for several Dutch media outlets in Egypt, and has been the Secretary-General of the Cairo Foreign Press Association since 2003.
Sawsan Gabra Ayoub Khalil is an Egyptian Christian civil engineer who is actively involved in projects advancing Arab-West and Muslim-Christian understanding. Sawsan Gabra is co-founder of Arab-West Report. AWR was previously called Religious News Service from the Arab World (RNSAW) (1997), and in 2005 founded the Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation (CIDT). Sawsan Gabra Ayoub Khalil also co-founded and first chaired the Center for Arab-West Understanding (CAWU). All three organizations are based in Cairo, Egypt.
The Arab-West Foundation (AWF) was established in 2005, and is registered in the Netherlands as the Stichting Arab West Understanding. It is connected to the work and ideals of the electronic magazine Arab-West Report.
Ayman Al-Sayyad (Arabic: أيمن الصياد, born March 17, 1956) is an Egyptian journalist, writer, magazine editor and political commentator. He has been editor of Weghat Nazar Periodical since 2000, and has a weekly column in Al Shorouk Newspaper. In addition to his journalistic career, on August 27, 2012, Al-Sayyad was chosen as a senior advisor to the first elected Egyptian president after the January 25 uprising, Mohammed Morsi. He had earlier declined a ministerial post as Minister of Information, to keep his editorial independence.
