Although security consultation occurs between the Patriarchate and security forces, Egyptian Christians rarely hold positions in the security sector.
The state’s solution to ensure Coptic safety since has been to increase military and security presence at churches and respond to terror attacks with swift demonstrations of force. Following the church attack in 2016 and on the heels of additional violence against Copts during 2017, President Sisi imposed a nationwide state of emergency as part of its counter-terrorism strategy to protect Christians. This expanding securitization of the mulid exposes a fundamental contradiction in the current Egyptian security regime. Whereas previous mulid celebrations were open to Muslim and Christians alike, the celebration of the Virgin Mary as one of the few spaces inclusive of both communities of faith has come under greater scrutiny from both the Patriarchate and the state. Although Pope Tawadros II frequently evokes the history of religious co-existence in Egypt, growing isolation and protection of Christian spaces have become more exclusive of their Muslim neighbors. These expressions of suspicion also reflect a collective fear within the Coptic clerical establishment to religious outsiders.
He was initially prohibited from entering the complex in spite of his press credentials and assignment to cover the festival for his media outlet. Meanwhile, my Egyptian travel companion was detained for several hours at the checkpoints on account of the “Muslim” designation on his Egyptian identification card. When I arrived at the monastery grounds at 3 am on a Sunday morning, a security official at the first checkpoint told me that reviewing my ID was not necessary because I was a woman (presumably, a non-Muslim-looking woman). For instance, security personnel profiled visitors on physical indicators of their religious affiliation-from asking parishioners to show their Coptic cross tattoos to detaining young women in hijabs for further screening. While the security screening included a customary process of placing belongings through a baggage scanner and walking through a metal detector, it also included more informal mechanisms of assessing potential threats. This year’s mulid required inspection at least three security checkpoints before entry into the monastery’s religious complex. As we will discover, the growing monopoly of the security regime under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi actually jeopardizes long-term solutions to stability in Egypt and makes the country less safe for Copts. The dependence on securitization demonstrates not only how the state manages the Coptic question, but also how it responds to threats to its authority.
Researcher Mina Ibrahim observed how the feast in 2017 was noticeably different from previous years of “unstructured and unsupervised activity” as new security protocols restricted the scope of activities permitted at the monastery.Įfforts to domesticate the Virgin Mary mulid extend beyond securing Christian spaces and represent a microcosm of broader state policies in Egypt. Since then, the mulid of the Virgin Mary has come under greater securitization and surveillance. Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church, in December 2016 and the Palm Sunday suicide bombings in Tanta and Alexandria in April 2017. At the end of 2016 and into 2017, some of these attacks received greater international attention such as the ISIS bombing of St. Terror attacks and sectarian violence against Christians in Egypt has increased in recent years with over five hundred incidents reported since 2013 by Eshhad. As pilgrims scale the mountain, they are met with opportunities for spiritual engagement through sermons, religious music, and prayer at shrines.Īccording to tradition, the monastery marks the farthest south the Holy Family is said to have sojourned in Egypt while fleeing persecution-a theme that reverberates with Copts today. The excitement and energy of the festival usually begins at the bottom of the mountain with vendors offering entertainment, refreshments, tattoo stations, and religious gifts for purchase. During this festival, thousands of Coptic pilgrims including families, church groups, and religious organizations travel to the Virgin Mary Monastery in the Dronka Mountains of Asyut for spiritual blessings and celebratory activities. What the Taming of Christian Spaces Reveals about Egypt’s Security Complexįor fifteen days every August, Egypt's Coptic Christian community celebrates one of its most popular religious festivals, the mulid of the Virgin Mary.
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