The State of Cultural Citizenship for Egyptian Minorities

The State of Cultural Citizenship for Egyptian Minorities PDF Author:
Publisher: Minority Rights Group
ISBN: 1912938588
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
This report argues for the need to reframe the concept of citizenship, as expressed by the Egyptian Constitution and state institutions. The existing official narrative champions a single cultural identity. In contrast, the report issues an urgent call for the recognition and equal protection of the cultural rights of all the different religious, ethnic and linguistic communities making up Egyptian society. The report considers the situations of religious minorities in Egypt, such as Christians across different denominations, Muslims (Shi'a, Ahmadis and Qur'anis), Jews, Bahá'ís and atheists. Furthermore, it includes an assessment of the cultural rights of ethnic minorities such as Nubians, Amazigh and Sinai Bedouins. Chapter One deals with the question of cultural citizenship as it is enshrined in the Egyptian Constitution and reflects on a number of shortcomings in terms of a lack of inclusivity in the definitions of citizenship to include cultural citizenship, particularly in terms of the cultural rights of religious and ethnic minorities. In Chapter Two, the authors argue that ethnic minorities are often misrepresented as a threat to nationalist notions of Egypt as a single and homogenous society. This reinforces their marginalisation from participation in political and public life, leading to serious threats to the security of minority activists. The securitisation of minority cultures can be seen in the treatment of linguistic rights for Egyptian Nubians and Copts, as well as the gaps in the Egyptian school curriculum regarding their culture and history. The chapter then goes on to discuss the cultural rights for Amazighs in Siwa, with a focus on the status of Amazigh women. Chapter Three deals with the subject of minority rights in relation to cultural heritage and business. Business and tourism development along the Nile is discussed in terms of the negative impact of hydroelectric dams, reservoirs and tourism on Nubian villages and the cultural rights of Nubians. The chapter then discusses the case study of the destruction of the remains of the historic Coptic Abu Daraj Monastery near the Red Sea. Chapter Four covers the issue of the prosecution of religious beliefs and violations of freedom of expression among Christians, Atheists, Shi’a Muslims, Ahmadis, and Qur’anists, particularly with regards to current legislation. Chapter Five touches on the issue of hate speech against minorities with regards to domestic legal framework, including the Penal Code, and hate speech in Egyptian public life more broadly. An extensive list of recommendations to the Egyptian government is included in this report, which includes: • Amendment of the 2014 Constitution to recognize the rights of persons belonging to minorities, expanding the recognition of cultural rights, and protecting their identity and heritage. • Urging the Egyptian authorities to adopt a constitutional article that recognizes the right of linguistic minorities to learn their own languages and to have them included in educational curricula at different educational levels and taught in their own schools. • Recognize the right of members of linguistic minorities to carry out their own educational activities to teach their own languages. This resource is an excellent point of reference for lawyers, activists, campaigners and community leaders seeking to advance cultural citizenship and cultural rights in Egypt.

The State of Cultural Citizenship for Egyptian Minorities

The State of Cultural Citizenship for Egyptian Minorities PDF Author:
Publisher: Minority Rights Group
ISBN: 1912938588
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book Here

Book Description
This report argues for the need to reframe the concept of citizenship, as expressed by the Egyptian Constitution and state institutions. The existing official narrative champions a single cultural identity. In contrast, the report issues an urgent call for the recognition and equal protection of the cultural rights of all the different religious, ethnic and linguistic communities making up Egyptian society. The report considers the situations of religious minorities in Egypt, such as Christians across different denominations, Muslims (Shi'a, Ahmadis and Qur'anis), Jews, Bahá'ís and atheists. Furthermore, it includes an assessment of the cultural rights of ethnic minorities such as Nubians, Amazigh and Sinai Bedouins. Chapter One deals with the question of cultural citizenship as it is enshrined in the Egyptian Constitution and reflects on a number of shortcomings in terms of a lack of inclusivity in the definitions of citizenship to include cultural citizenship, particularly in terms of the cultural rights of religious and ethnic minorities. In Chapter Two, the authors argue that ethnic minorities are often misrepresented as a threat to nationalist notions of Egypt as a single and homogenous society. This reinforces their marginalisation from participation in political and public life, leading to serious threats to the security of minority activists. The securitisation of minority cultures can be seen in the treatment of linguistic rights for Egyptian Nubians and Copts, as well as the gaps in the Egyptian school curriculum regarding their culture and history. The chapter then goes on to discuss the cultural rights for Amazighs in Siwa, with a focus on the status of Amazigh women. Chapter Three deals with the subject of minority rights in relation to cultural heritage and business. Business and tourism development along the Nile is discussed in terms of the negative impact of hydroelectric dams, reservoirs and tourism on Nubian villages and the cultural rights of Nubians. The chapter then discusses the case study of the destruction of the remains of the historic Coptic Abu Daraj Monastery near the Red Sea. Chapter Four covers the issue of the prosecution of religious beliefs and violations of freedom of expression among Christians, Atheists, Shi’a Muslims, Ahmadis, and Qur’anists, particularly with regards to current legislation. Chapter Five touches on the issue of hate speech against minorities with regards to domestic legal framework, including the Penal Code, and hate speech in Egyptian public life more broadly. An extensive list of recommendations to the Egyptian government is included in this report, which includes: • Amendment of the 2014 Constitution to recognize the rights of persons belonging to minorities, expanding the recognition of cultural rights, and protecting their identity and heritage. • Urging the Egyptian authorities to adopt a constitutional article that recognizes the right of linguistic minorities to learn their own languages and to have them included in educational curricula at different educational levels and taught in their own schools. • Recognize the right of members of linguistic minorities to carry out their own educational activities to teach their own languages. This resource is an excellent point of reference for lawyers, activists, campaigners and community leaders seeking to advance cultural citizenship and cultural rights in Egypt.

Globalization and “Minority” Cultures

Globalization and “Minority” Cultures PDF Author: Sophie Croisy
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
ISBN: 9004282084
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Globalization and “Minority” Cultures: The Role of “Minor” Cultural Groups in Shaping Our Global Future is a collective work which brings to the forefront of global studies new perspectives on the relationship between globalization and the experiences of cultural minorities worldwide.

Latino Immigrants in the United States

Latino Immigrants in the United States PDF Author: Ronald L. Mize
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745647421
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This timely and important book introduces readers to the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States - Latinos - and their diverse conditions of departure and reception. A central theme of the book is the tension between the fact that Latino categories are most often assigned from above, and how those defined as Latino seek to make sense of and enliven a shared notion of identity from below. Providing a sophisticated introduction to emerging theoretical trends and social formations specific to Latino immigrants, chapters are structured around the topics of Latinidad or the idea of a pan-ethnic Latino identity, pathways to citizenship, cultural citizenship, labor, gender, transnationalism, and globalization. Specific areas of focus include the 2006 marches of the immigrant rights movement and the rise in neoliberal nativism (including both state-sponsored restrictions such as Arizona’s SB1070 and the hate crimes associated with Minutemen vigilantism). The book is a valuable contribution to immigration courses in sociology, history, ethnic studies, American Studies, and Latino Studies. It is one of the first, and certainly the most accessible, to fully take into account the plurality of experiences, identities, and national origins constituting the Latino category.

Promoting and Protecting Minority Rights

Promoting and Protecting Minority Rights PDF Author: United Nations
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
"The present guide offers information related to norms and mechanisms developed to protect the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities. It includes detailed information about procedures and forums in which minority issues may be raised to minorities and by also covering selected specialized agencies and regional mechanisms, the present Guide complements information contained in Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society"--Introduction.

The Challenge of Political Islam

The Challenge of Political Islam PDF Author: Rachel Scott
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804769052
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Based on Islamist writings, political tracts, and interviews with Islamists, this book examines Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt from the perspective of Islamic conceptions of citizenship, and provides non-Muslim responses to those views.

Religious Minorities in the Middle East

Religious Minorities in the Middle East PDF Author: Anh Nga Longva
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004207422
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Focusing on the situation of both Muslim and non-Muslim religious minorities in the Middle East, this volume offers an analysis of various strategies of resilience and accommodation from a historical as well a contemporary perspective.

Religious Difference in a Secular Age

Religious Difference in a Secular Age PDF Author: Saba Mahmood
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691153280
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
How secular governance in the Middle East is making life worse—not better—for religious minorities The plight of religious minorities in the Middle East is often attributed to the failure of secularism to take root in the region. Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges this assessment by examining four cornerstones of secularism—political and civil equality, minority rights, religious freedom, and the legal separation of private and public domains. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Egypt with Coptic Orthodox Christians and Bahais—religious minorities in a predominantly Muslim country—Saba Mahmood shows how modern secular governance has exacerbated religious tensions and inequalities rather than reduced them. Tracing the historical career of secular legal concepts in the colonial and postcolonial Middle East, she explores how contradictions at the very heart of political secularism have aggravated and amplified existing forms of Islamic hierarchy, bringing minority relations in Egypt to a new historical impasse. Through a close examination of Egyptian court cases and constitutional debates about minority rights, conflicts around family law, and controversies over freedom of expression, Mahmood invites us to reflect on the entwined histories of secularism in the Middle East and Europe. A provocative work of scholarship, Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges us to rethink the promise and limits of the secular ideal of religious equality.

Postcolonial minorities in Britain and France

Postcolonial minorities in Britain and France PDF Author: Shailja Sharma
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526108313
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This book compares the postcolonial populations of Britain and France, examining the ways in which they are redefining citizenship. Bearing in mind the different histories and political systems of each country, it considers questions of national identity, values, the place of religion, secularism and public spaces - all integral to determining what makes a country a true nation. Recent security threats have made the debate around minorities and assimilation all the more pressing, and this book delves deep into the issues of feminism, Islam and group identities. It will be of interest to students and scholars of race, religion and migration studies.

Recasting Islamic Law

Recasting Islamic Law PDF Author: Rachel M. Scott
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501753991
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
By examining the intersection of Islamic law, state law, religion, and culture in the Egyptian nation-building process, Recasting Islamic Law highlights how the sharia, when attached to constitutional commitments, is reshaped into modern Islamic state law. Rachel M. Scott analyzes the complex effects of constitutional commitments to the sharia in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. She argues that the sharia is not dismantled by the modern state when it is applied as modern Islamic state law, but rather recast in its service. In showing the particular forms that the sharia takes when it is applied as modern Islamic state law, Scott pushes back against assumptions that introductions of the sharia into modern state law result in either the revival of medieval Islam or in its complete transformation. Scott engages with premodern law and with the Ottoman legal legacy on topics concerning Egypt's Coptic community, women's rights, personal status law, and the relationship between religious scholars and the Supreme Constitutional Court. Recasting Islamic Law considers modern Islamic state law's discontinuities and its continuities with premodern sharia. Thanks to generous funding from Virginia Tech and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Nomadic Identities

Nomadic Identities PDF Author: May Joseph
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9781452903705
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
In a modern world of vast migrations and relocations, the rights -- and rites -- of citizenship are increasingly perplexing, and ever more important. This book asks how citizenship is enacted when all the world's the stage. Kung Fu cinema, soul music, plays, and speeches are some of the media May Joseph considers as expressive negotiations for legal and cultural citizenship. Nomadic Identities combines material culture and historical approaches to forge connections between East Africa, India, Britain, the Caribbean, and the United States in the struggles for democratic citizenship. Exploring the notion of nomadic citizenship as a modern construct, Joseph emphasizes culture as the volatile mise-en-scene through which popular conceptions of local and national citizenship emerge. Joseph, an Asian African from Tanzania, brings a personal insight to the question of how citizenship is expressed -- particularly the nomadic, conditional citizenship related to histories of migrancy and the tenuous status of immigrants. Nomadic Identities investigates the metaphoric, literal, and performed possibilities available in different arenas of the everyday through which individuals and communities experience citizenship -- successfully or not. A unique inquiry into contemporary experiences of migrancy linking Tanzania, Britain, and the United States, this book blends political theory, performance studies, cultural studies, and historical writing. It offers vignettes that describe the official and informal cultural transactions that designate citizenship under the globalizing forces of decolonization, the cold war, and transnational networks. Crossing the globe, Nomadic Identities provides freshinsights into the contemporary phenomena of territorial displacement and the resulting local and transnational movements of people.