Too often, studies of Coptic Christians are confined by geographic boundaries of the modern nation and the question that local minority identities pose for the construction of bounded national mythologies. Such limitations obscure the impact of migration, cultural exchange, and how immigrants reconstruct and invent new ways of understanding the nation, its minorities, and transnational communal identities. This paper interrogates the continentally-circulated publications of academics, political activists, and religious leaders of Coptic populations in Toronto and New York after the ascendancy of President Anwar al-Sadat and concludes with the release of Pope Shenouda III from the St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi al-Natroun Valley. I focus particularly on how Canadian multiculturalism offered an alternative for thinking otherwise about communal identities to challenge what it meant to be a Coptic Christian, outside the confines of the Egyptian nation. Employing textual material from Canadian and Egyptian archives, the textual and photographic collections of Coptic families in Toronto and New York, and oral testimony collected in those cities, I address the crucial role that immigrants have played in transgressing artificial boundaries to highlight the importance of borderless narratives in developing a more nuanced understanding of ethnic identity and belonging that have shaped, and continue to shape, the history of Egypt and of Copts in Canada. Concerned with several questions, this paper examines the ways in which relations between the Egyptian state and this religious minority have changed in the latter twentieth century, and how Coptic émigrés - through their academic literature, church newsletters, newspapers, and political activism - have challenged and extended local political and religious conversations beyond the confines of the nation. These, and other questions, will offer fertile ground to further interrogate the affect of long-distance nationalism on relations between minorities and the state in Egypt and its diasporas.

The passing of Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III in 2012 has prompted observers and scholars of Egypt's Coptic Christian community to appraise his enormous contribution to the institutional development of the Coptic Orthodox Church. There are few who would challenge the notion that Shenouda has had far and away the greatest impact upon the institution of the Church since at least the mid-nineteenth century. Nonetheless, this paper urges a reappraisal of the institutional impact of Shenouda's predecessor, Kirollos VI. Among observers and scholars of modern Coptic history, the impact of Kirollos on the temporal affairs of the church is often neglected in favor of an exclusive focus of his spiritual influence, and in that connection, the abundant miracles he is said to have performed. Drawing upon a wide range of primary sources, recently made available to scholars through the digitization efforts of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, this paper establishes that most of the initiatives that led to the vast expansion of Church activity under Shenouda were, in fact, inaugurated by Pope Kirollos VI. Further, a thorough understanding of the contemporary 'renaissance' of the Church, often credited to Shenouda, requires an exploration of Church and community dynamics since Kirollos's rise to the Patriarchal seat in 1959. Indeed, I will argue, perhaps counterintuitively, that the circumstances of Nasser's 'secular' rule laid the groundwork for a reorientation and distinct reassertion of Coptic communal identity.

This paper examines the negotiation of space, citizenship status, and identity claims by the Coptic Protestant community during the formation of the modern Egyptian nation-state. I argue that despite originating from American missionary influences, Coptic Protestantism transformed alongside the shifting late-colonial and post-colonial nationalist political environment in Egypt, whereby Coptic Protestant identity manifested as a socio-religious expression of Egyptian nationalism—having a hybrid identity that fused transnational American and Egyptian identity markers. In other words, this paper examines the ‘Egyptianization’ of Protestantism as a reflection of broader Egyptian nationalist workings in 20th century Egypt. Seeking to configure their place as a minority, both within larger Egyptian society and within Coptic circles, Coptic Protestant identity formed in between competing transnational and local power dynamics. Populist expressions of Egyptian nationalism produced a robust anti-imperialist movement that succeeded in overthrowing the colonial powers while resisting many forms of foreign intervention, including missionaries. American Protestant missionaries developed a Coptic Protestant community funded by American government and private sources. Coptic Protestant groups were mainly comprised of Copts who left the Orthodox Church. By 1878, the Khedive formally recognized Protestantism as a distinct religious sect. By the 20th century, however, as Egyptian nationalism materialized, anti-missionary campaigns became more widespread, reaching its zenith from the 1930s until the expulsion of missionaries in 1967. Using Coptic Protestant institutional synod minutes alongside American missionary minutes, foreign board and missionary reports juxtaposed to Egyptian populist news sources detailing anti-missionary movements and its effects on larger Egyptian society, I argue that Coptic Protestantism developed by balancing indigenous and non-indigenous identity markers i.e. negotiating identity politics amidst debates of Egyptian citizenship, nationalism, and Coptic-American relations. Broadly, this paper places Copts within larger social and political Egyptian histories, asking how have American interventions influenced post-colonial Egyptian affairs, national identities and nation-building policies? How do minorities, particularly the Copts, position themselves in post-colonial Egypt given their historic benefits from American missionary presence. Transcending Egyptian borders, Coptic Protestantism echoed many elements of American Protestantism with frequent movement of Egyptians and Americans across borders as a means to bolster the Egyptian Coptic Protestant community. Examining these Egyptian and American experiences beyond and within Egyptian national boundaries, this paper intervenes in discussions surrounding citizenship rights and claims by minorities—using Coptic Protestant identity formation as a prism to investigate the status of minorities during Egypt’s transition from a colonial to post-colonial state.

After the uprisings of 2011 and coup of 2013, Egyptian emigration to the US increased dramatically, especially among Coptic Christians, due to both economic and political instability, as well as increased attacks against them and their places of worship. This paper explores the ways in which discrimination and violence against minority populations, in particular the Copts, are understood through modern secular governance (Asad 2003, Mahmood 2015), and how this is shaped between homeland and diaspora (Bernal 2006, Ghosh 1989). Based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork between Upper Egypt and the New York-New Jersey area, this paper brings into conversation the current context of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US and discussions on the persecution of Copts in Egypt. Typical images of the Coptic diaspora portray engagements of Copts with Islamophobic discourses and right-wing organizations as means to advance their cause for equal rights and an end to Christian persecution in Egypt (Haddad 2013, Yefet 2015). While these images are important to any discussion on the Coptic diaspora, this paper examines how discourses of persecution have been framed by various actors—including the Coptic Orthodox Church, Coptic rights activists, Coptic-American youth, and especially intra-Christian actors. Specifically, the paper describes how the Coptic Orthodox Church in the New York-New Jersey area has adapted to increased immigration from Egypt, and the ways this immigration has shaped the narratives of persecution. The image of Egypt for many new immigrants and Coptic-American youth is shaped by geopolitical conditions and American political culture. My focus for the first part of this paper is to tell stories that illuminate how that image is constructed and how it is discussed. Second, the paper discusses how that image has remolded Coptic communities in the United States, through their political stances and actions, and how these circulations of Copts between America and Upper Egypt, in particular, have affected inter-communal relations transnationally.