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The Coptic Christian population in Egypt is the largest Christian community in the Middle East. [5] Christians represent around 15% to 20% of a population of over 115 million Egyptians, though estimates vary (see Religion in Egypt).
However, gradual conversions to Islam over the centuries had changed Egypt from a Christian to a largely Muslim country by the end of the 12th century. [38] Another scholar writes that a combination of "repression of Coptic revolts", Arab-Muslim immigration, and Coptic conversion to Islam resulted in the demographic decline of the Copts. [39]
The vast majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts who belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Church. [2] [3] As of 2019, Copts in Egypt make up approximately 10 percent of the nation's population, [4] with an estimated population of 9.5 million (figure cited in the Wall Street Journal, 2017) [5] or 10 million (figure cited in the Associated Press, 2019). [6]
Despite the persecution under al-Hakim's reign, Egypt remained mainly Christian, but Coptic Christianity lost its majority status after the 14th century. [31] At the end of the Fatimid dynasty, Salah al-Din renewed discriminatory laws against non-Muslims, but there was little or no active persecution until the Mamluks came to power. [32]
Many Coptic intellectuals hold to Pharaonism, which states that Coptic culture is largely derived from pre-Christian, Pharaonic Egyptian culture. It gives the Copts a claim to a deep heritage in Egyptian history and culture.
An Egyptian court on February 25, 2016, convicted four Coptic Christian teenagers for contempt of Islam, after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers. [53] Nearly all Egyptian Christians today are Copts, adherents of either the Coptic Orthodox Church or other Coptic churches.
Christian Monasticism was born in Egypt and was instrumental in the formation of the Coptic Orthodox Church character of submission, simplicity and humility, thanks to the teachings and writings of the Great Fathers of Egypt's Deserts. By the end of the 5th century, there were hundreds of monasteries, and thousands of cells and caves scattered ...
In that way it gives the Copts a claim to a deep heritage in Egyptian history and culture. With pharaonism the Copts claimed a deeply rooted national identity that transcends the religious opposition between Egypt's Muslim majority and Egypt's Christian minority. Pharaonism was widely held by Coptic scholars in the early 20th century.