Identity, marginalisation, activism, and victimhood in Egypt : misfits in the Coptic Christian community / Mina Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, Mina.
2022
BX134.E3
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Title
Identity, marginalisation, activism, and victimhood in Egypt : misfits in the Coptic Christian community / Mina Ibrahim.
Author
Ibrahim, Mina.
ISBN
9783031101793 (electronic bk.)
3031101790 (electronic bk.)
3031101782
9783031101786
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10179-3
Publication Details
Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource.
Item Number
10.1007/978-3-031-10179-3 doi
Call Number
BX134.E3
Dewey Decimal Classification
281.720962
Summary
This book, first ethnographic attempt, examines negated spaces, practices, and relationships that have been intentionally or unintentionally dismissed from academic and non-academic studies, articles, reports, and policy papers that investigate and debate the experiences of Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt. By taking the Coptic identity and faith to bars, liquor stores, coffeehouses, weed gatherings, prisons, casinos, night clubs, brothels, dating applications, and porn sites, this book argues that airing out this "dirty laundry" points to the limits of victimhood and activist narratives that shape the representation of Coptic grievances and interests on both national and international levels. By introducing misfits who exist in the shadows of the well-studied Coptic rituals, traditions, miracles, saints apparitions, and street protests, the book highlights the contradiction between the centrality of sin to the (Coptic) Christian tradition and theology, on one hand, and on the other hand the dismissal of lives that are dominantly labelled as sinful while simultaneously studying Copts as agents or victims of history and in todays Egyptian society. Drawing on many years of fieldwork accompanied and preceded by periods the author spent as a student and a lay servant in different forms of services in the Coptic Orthodox Church, the book acknowledges the recent anthropological work that is critical of how the secular West and its academia misrepresent God and His believers in the Middle East. However, the fact that this book extends its arguments from "ethnographic confessions" collected from who deal with God on a daily basis since their childhood, it investigates the implications and consequences of inviting God to be part of an anthropological study that complicates aspects of repentance and salvation among the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. Mina Ibrahim is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Marburg and an affiliate researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO). He is also the project coordinator of the MENA Prison Forum (MPF) and the founder of SARD for History and Social Research (Shubras Archive).
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Series
Minorities in West Asia and North Africa.
Available in Other Form
Print version: 9783031101793
Print version: 9783031101786
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Intro
Preface
Acknowledgements
A Note on Transliteration
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1 Introduction
Imperfect December
Another December
Shards
The Burden of the Two Original Sins
The Artifice of the Perfect Agent and Victim
The Familiar Stranger: Positionality and Methodology
This Book: An Ethnography of "Dirty Laundry"
References
Chapter 2 Collecting Shubra
Trams, Workers, and Elites
Merchants, Priests, and Prostitutes
The Effendis, the Pope, and the Lord's Brethren
Kids, Summer Vacations, and Schools

Friendships, Broken Hearts, and Coffeeshop Company
Scout Teams, Facebook, and Kiosks
Conclusion: Khumarawyh versus Tosson Pasha
References
Chapter 3 "The Word Became Flesh"
"Hide It"
"Write...for He Who Writes Never Dies"
"Why Is Jesus so Complicated to Understand?"
"I Haven't Come to Bring Peace But a Sword"
"And Peace Be upon Me on the Day I Was Born"
"How Did God Favour One Person Over Another?"
"Why Did Jesus Want to Trick Satan?"
"But He Died When His Successor Became a Futuwwa"
"Faith Wise...Science Wise"
Conclusion: "Who Is This?"
References

Chapter 4 Living and Writing in Times of Hegemony
Introduction: Waguih Ghali and Enayat Al-Zayyat
Bolbol's Poisoned Gift
Khidma-Shisha Tastes
John's Fantasised Casino
Boulos' Celebration
Dalia's Silent Complaint
Rania's Unredeemed Clips
Conclusion: Shafiqa's Copticness
References
Chapter 5 Tricks That Matter
Introduction: The Church Football Federation
A Smoking Saint
Wine for the Sake of Mary
Skimmed Milk and Soya Beans
Protestant Marriage and Queer Stories
Conclusion: Another Chance for the "Foolish"?
References

Chapter 6 Martyrologies of Rubble
Introduction: Youssef Lamei
Alcoholic Martyrologies
Revolutionary Martyrologies
Ordinary Martyrologies
Martyrologies of Thakālā
Martyrologies for the Traumatised and the Displaced
Dangerous Martyrologies
Conclusion: Sexualised Martyrologies
References
Chapter 7 Jails Without Miracles
Shubra's Criminal
Mediation
Miracles
Confession
Rehabilitation?
Deformation
Rape
Death
Conclusion: The Lord's Complex Paths
References
Chapter 8 Conclusion
God and the Scientific Conference
Ethnographic Confessions

Estrangement in Times of (God's) Hegemony
References
Glossary
Index

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