A new report on religious status in Egypt

Cairo – An Egyptian think tank published a new in-depth report about the religious status in Egypt. The work on this report lasted for four years.

Working team on this seven-volume report are from DAAL for Research & Media Center (which is an Egyptian research center) in cooperation with the Foundation of Believers without Borders for Studies and Researches (which is an Egyptian Non-Governmental Organization).

The report is considered an encyclopedic work consisting of seven parts. It monitors and analyzes the contemporary religious status in Egypt from 2010 to 2014. It monitors what is pertinent to the issue of religiosity, all what is pure devotional, all what is social, cultural, economic and political; therefore, there was a urgent need for studying the phenomenon in its comprehensiveness without limitation to the study of the belief side and its political repercussions.

 This project constitutes a new precedent quantitatively and qualitatively in the studies on this matter as it was overwhelmed by the meticulous descriptiveness and accurate scientific analysis of the patterns of religiosity and all its institutions in Egypt, anthropologically and sociologically in an attempt to monitor the landmarks of development and change which affected the religious trends in Egypt especially in the period which coincided with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood group and the militant religious groups as it tried to monitor the work mechanisms and tracks of those groups, their fundraising capabilities and their mass mobilization.

This work is divided into seven volumes:

1.    Official doctrines and religious institutions (Islamic).

2.    Official religious doctrines and institutions (Jews- Christians – the religiously marginalized).

3.    Local non-institutional religious formations.

4.    Religious, political, media and economic powers.

5.    Religious discourse: its mechanisms and trends.

6.    Religious reference within the legal and constitutional framework.

7.    Field study.

One of the important points for which the report specified a complete part is the file of political Islam and the transference of Islamists with their various factions including the Salafis from advocating for Islam to politics and the establishment of political parties.