Religion, Belief, and Social Dynamics in Alexandria, Egypt

By Liza M. Franke

While carrying out extensive fieldwork among Muslim ‘middle class

milieus’ in Alexandria throughout the years 2016-2018 on the

subject of individual piety, I came across different understandings and

approaches towards the terms religion and belief.¹ As Bruno Latour

states, belief and religion can be conflicting notions.² What they mean in

everyday life is not necessarily what is written in books and what

scholars might suggest, but it carries emotions with it and a wide range

of interpretational understanding. My focus on the very individual and intimate understanding of the term has to be put in relation

to the more public and politically informed understanding of religion — at least in the case of Egypt. Here, state Islam and the

influence of authoritative institutions on the interpretation of religion are decisive. While Saba Mahmood (2005) described non-

agency, my research focuses on the opposite, namely the (conscious) agency of my interview partners who are very much aware of

their own personal definition of what religion means.

Especially since the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, approaches towards and understandings of religion, i.e. Islam, have undergone

efficacious changes that influence belief systems and interpretations until today. While the ousting of Hosni Mobarak was followed

by the election of Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, his presidency has led to emotional developments in

society in terms of how Islam is being perceived. The restrictions in the name of religion during Morsi’s ruling of  Egypt resulted in

disappointment and the popular analysis that Islam is being corrupted by the ruling party in order to control society and suppress

the population by triggering a guilty consciousness towards God. I do not want to go into detail in the political and social

developments of the times  after the revolution –— many valuable books have been published on this issue and can be  referred to.

What I rather want to focus on is the fact that the political landscape can be decisive for social dynamics. What does the apparent

disenchantment with public religion in Egypt symbolise? What happens if the public space is only limitedly attractive to

worshippers?

Egyptian society is divided, among others, along religious lines and many who do not consider themselves belonging to the

mainstream, i.e. being religious and practicing to one extent or another, claim to be emotionally and socially excluded from the

larger community. Political decisions that enter the religious realm also play an important role in this emotional perception. The

power of the state is here being exerted by means of social rejection sometimes even detestation. Thus religion, tradition, culture,

and politics play into one another in Egypt which makes studying religion in this country a challenging task. According to Birgit

Meyer, it is about the transformation of religion and not about the steady fading and even disappearing of religion – something that

I also observed during my field research. Due to the fact, “that it is increasingly difficult to say where religion stops, and begins,

has serious implications for our understanding of the relation between religion and “the world” in our time.”³

What I am pleading for, based on my research experience in many Arab countries, is a conscious and detailed awareness of the

differences between “religion” and “being religious.” The majority of Alexandrians consider themselves to be religious in one way

or another. This has to be acknowledged and we as scholars have the responsibility to research this highly loaded and sensitive field

with respect and attention to detail and nuance. Muslim practices cannot be singled out and analyzed exclusively, they have to be

put in larger historical, spatial, social and political contexts that mutually influence each other. Concerning methodology, it is

important to carry out long term field research that is based on qualitative methods. From my perspective it is also more fruitful,

while keeping an eye on larger social dynamics to focus on individual perspectives and identities and to open the attention to

practices, embodiment, discourses, texts and spiritual influence as well as to power relations. Moreover, I consider it essential to

always also keep concepts of afterlife and paradise in mind when researching Islam — they cannot be ignored. Having said this, I

do not mean to focus on the transcendental in the religious, on the contrary, I also think that it is more important to highlight the

aspect of belief and being religious in the religious than to concentrate on the dogmatic in the religious.

Another aspect that I find crucial, is to move beyond the religious-secular dichotomy and open up the dualism by listening to the

voids, absences, silences and taboos that are present and that invite us to look at post-secular trends as described above (state

influence in terms of religious limitation is necessary at least in Egypt, however, the individual and private has to be taken into

consideration, especially the so-called spiritual wanderer who are searching for something different aside from mainstream Islam).

This is pointed out by my interview partner Hala, who states: “Recently, I started doubting religion and I became interested in

atheism. But at the same time it makes me feel extremely guilty. I don’t fast anymore and I am lying to my parents. I want to be an

“ex-Muslim”, but I fear the reaction of society. And I also fear hell. But I don’t believe in paradise and hell. This is the influence of

how I was brought up. I don’t want to feel guilty, I don’t want to be scared.” This quote by a young Muslim woman shows, that we

need to look at individual wishes, doubts, aspirations, worries, fears, as much as we need to look at dogma and institutionalised

Islam that infuse these dilemmas.