Dynamics of a Stagnant Religious Discourse and the Rise of New Secular Movements in Egypt
Dynamics of a Stagnant Religious Discourse and the Rise of New Secular Movements in Egypt
This chapter analyzes the extent to which the Egyptian public sphere, especially religious institutions were controlled by the ruling authoritarian regime. Eventually, both the state's dominance over institutions and society, along with the established religious institutions' discourse, became stagnant, which precipitated the development of new social movements that were able to mobilize people beyond the stagnant religious discourse. These developed a new discourse, based on human rights, freedoms and social equality. Through developing their new discourse, new secular social movements did not undermine Egyptian's religious consciousness, but rather developed new ideals, in harmony with the Egyptian political culture, but beyond the constraints of the main religious institutions.
Keywords: Public Sphere, Al-Azhar, The Coptic Orthodox Church, Social Movements, Authoritarianism
Cairo Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .