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Diasporic Coptic Activism, Generational Divides, and the Challenge of Framing Islam/ophobia
Abstract
Scholarship on Egyptian diaspora mobilization towards homeland concerns often ignores ethno-religious minority actors and their claims. Yet minority communities have a stake in both national and minority interests, where, at times, these interests may compete. Even further, the literature on diaspora mobilization has minimally attended to generational divides and their implications for fragmented mobilization. Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork on Coptic-Egyptian advocacy in Washington, DC, I ask how generational divides between older diasporic activists and younger American-born Copts have resulted in fragmented mobilization in the United States. I specifically attend to the discursive battle around framing the role of Islam and Muslims in the homeland in a context where Islamophobia is rampant in the hostland. The lack of coherence around how exactly to define “the cause” not only has consequences for Coptic mobilization and collective memory, but also has implications for coalition building with fractions of the Egyptian diaspora at large.
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Diaspora/Refugee Studies