Devotion to the Administrative State: Religion and Social Order in Egypt explains why the state’s authority to decide what is and is not religion/religious remains desirable among marginalized communities even as an interdisciplinary scholarship has long argued that state regulation inhibits religious flourishing. Examining the claims-making practices of Coptic Orthodox Christians and Bahá’ís in Egypt before and after the 2011 uprising, Mona Oraby shows that minorities who mobilize state adjudicative institutions, including those who challenge state agents or decisions, seek to expand state definitions of law and religion in ways that include their difference and reinforce majoritarianism. Their activism encourages a rethinking of how membership as enshrined in public law coheres with membership rules specific to religious communities. Importantly, as Oraby argues, that coherence does not result from the state remaking communities in its image but reflects preexisting and mutually reinforcing norms.

Hosted by the Department for the Study of Religion; co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science and Michael E. Marmura Lecture Series in Arabic Studies