ICC Note: Religion in Egypt is being used as a maneuvering tool to “frame and manipulate citizens.” For Christians particularly, it is a tool used to assure the Muslim majority that they are dominant and superior. This has little to do with restrictions and more to do with the absolute impunity in which Muslim extremists operate when attacking Christians families and institutions. Just like any other political tool, religion is used to control society.

07/14/2016 Egypt (Al Arabiya):Religions are meant to play a spiritual role in people’s lives; yet their power is being harnessed in the service of the Egyptian state, providing it with an additional “maneuvering tool” to frame and manipulate citizens. With the aim of supporting the state in its mission to control the society, large numbers of citizens (defined as religious figures) are, unfortunately, advocating for irreligious behavior.

The Egyptian state claims to be working on promoting a “devout society”, but actually it is expanding and strengthening the role played by religion in ordinary people’s lives in order to eventually use it as a tool to control society. Religion in Egypt is no different from politics, business, media, or any other domain; they all function as diverse arms and processes servicing the state’s policies. Obviously, this comes at the cost of distancing Egyptians from observing and abiding by the true values of their respective religions.

The Egyptian state essentially controls the entire dynamics of the two dominant religions in Egypt i.e., Islam and Christianity. Overall, Muslim and Christian religious institutions operate freely in the handling of their internal issues. However, when either institution comes into conflict with the state’s ruling mechanism, the Egyptian state clearly has the upper hand in deciding the issue; both institutions must comply with the state’s decisions fully – even if its position goes against the core principles of either religion.

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The Egyptian state tends to be lenient in its application of criminal law provisions when Muslim extremists attack the homes and businesses of the Christian minority. This is not due to any state discrimination against Christians; sadly, by pleasing large numbers of illiterate Muslims at the expense of the minority, the state aims to inflate the power of the “majority”, giving it a sense of superiority in society.

By surrounding churches with cement blocks, the state is sending a message to Egyptian Copts: that they are under constant threat from extremists and terrorists and should thus value the protection provided them by the state – and tone down their demands regarding the building of new churches.

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