Egypt: not yet a civic state

The Ottomans in Egypt let power slip more than 200 years ago, when Albanian adventurer Muhammad Ali became the de facto independent ‘viceroy’. But their legacy lives on in a version of the Ottoman millet system, which divides the population into religious communities, each with control over personal status matters such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. For administrative convenience and in deference to the Muslim concept that ‘revealed’ religions are the only ones that count, every Egyptian is registered as either Muslim, Christian or Jewish. ‘Freedom of religion’ in the Egyptian context basically means the freedom to worship in the manner of one’s ancestors. The system has been creaking at the seams for decades, and globalization, migration and the communications revolution have added to the strain. Some Muslims have tried to turn Christian, Christian women have dismayed their birth community by converting to Islam and previously unfamiliar beliefs