Devotion to the Administrative State

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"In this book, Mona Oraby argues that the pursuit of official recognition by religious minorities amounts to a devotional practice. Countering the prevailing views on secularism, Oraby contends that demands by seemingly marginal groups to have their religious differences recognized by the state in fact assure communal integrity and coherence over time. Making her case, she analyzes more than fifty years of administrative judicial trends, theological discourse, and minority claims-making practices, focusing on the activities of Coptic Orthodox Christians and Bahâa âi in modern and contemporary Egypt. Oraby documents the ways that devotion is expressed across a range of sites and sources, including in lawyers' offices, administrative judicial verdicts, televised media and film, and invitation-only study sessions. She shows how Egypt's religious minorities navigated the political and legal upheavals of the 2011 uprising and now persevere amid authoritarian repression." --