Democracy, citizenship and religion in egypt

on the necessity of disrupting a post-Arab Spring

Nuraan Davids

pp. 13-30

in: Yusef Waghid, Nuraan Davids (eds), African democratic citizenship education revisited, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Drawing on a particular historical Islamic understanding of citizenship as a social contract between an individual and the state, the implicit premise of this chapter is that contemporary notions of citizenship are reconcilable with Islam. The author argues that democratic citizenship is not only a desired social and political practice, but also a recognition that the extent and strength of a democratic society is essentially determined by the level and extent of participation and engagement of its citizens. The emergence of a democratic citizenship in Egypt is, therefore, dependent on a willingness to disrupt and bring into the contestation the particular constructions of religion, which have thus far abetted repressive practices and have, ironically, paved the way for the disruption of democracy.