Abstract

This thesis examined the crisis of building and renovating churches in Egypt in the light of the Church-state relation. I focused on three case studies in the El-Minya governorate that includes the largest Christian concentration in the Middle East to shed light on the existing difficulties that face Christians there regarding building a house of worship. The first case study, "church No 1", was demolished due to political conflict between Islamists and the state after the Rabaa massacre in 2013. In comparison, church No 2 asserts that Muslims' approval is a prerequisite for Christians' prayers. In addition to church No 3, a moving church, the Christians could not build a settled one because of Muslims' opposing. Both cases confirm that the law 80/2016 of building and renovating churches is being violated or needs to be amended.

In this thesis, I argue that building and renovating churches in Egypt is a crisis that challenges the Egyptian state from one hand and reflects the current church-state relation from another

School

School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

Department

Middle East Studies Center

Degree Name

MA in Middle East Studies

Graduation Date

Fall 2-14-2022

Submission Date

1-24-2022

First Advisor

Munira Khayyat

Committee Member 1

Smriti Upadhyay

Committee Member 2

Ian Morrison

Extent

89 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Approval has been obtained for this item

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