I. Milad Hanna discusses Coptic Identity and Sectarian Conflict
[Please click on the Annotation tab under the video for my guided outline of the relevant sections]
This interview gives great insight into many different realms of sectarian conflict between Coptic Christians and Egyptian Muslims, include defining what “Coptic” even is, revealing political/institutional reasons for suppression of Coptic identity, and displaying the influence of the West on sectarian religious conflict in Egypt. While the term “Coptic” is usually used to refer to the ethno-religious minority almost exclusively practicing its respective form of ancient Christianity, Milad Hanna reveals the origin of the word to simply mean “Egyptian” (see 00:30-1:00). This raises questions as to the lines and bounds of Coptic identity, as there are likely a great many Egyptian Muslims who are descendants of the ethnically Coptic line, demonstrating how the practice of adopting Arab names in Muslim religion has blurred the presence of Coptic religion in broad Egyptian population. Similarly, there is no way to guarantee that every Coptic Christian is in fact purely a descendant of the original Egyptian line, which in and of itself holds the impossible assumption that there is a singular “pure” Egyptian heritage. Though this shows how ethnic lines can be blurred, the religious distinctions and contentions are indisputable: although he personally does not take it seriously, Hanna illuminates institutional basis for Coptic suppression in discussing the second article of the Egyptian constitution in which Islam is proclaimed to be the religion of the state (see 1:35-2:01). This detail shows ample reason why it is difficult for Copts to have a public presence, as their very existence is a form of political resistance or contradiction, threatening the fabric of the state. Finally, Milad Hanna provides a critical analysis of the reasons for such an extent of religious conflict: the West’s attack on Islam (see 3:45-4:45). The Coptic Christian tension with Islam is fundamentally different from the islamophobia of the West, because it spurs out of a need for survival and desire for simple co-existence, whereas the unfounded Western islamophobia is built on racism, fear, and ignorance. Despite having drastically different hierarchies—a fact which the denial of has caused countless unnecessary conflicts—the worlds are inextricably linked. As a result, the West trying to impose its own hierarchies on the East creates an understandably defensive nature in the Eastern authorities which, in Egypt, leaves Copts as collateral damage. Thus, we can begin to understand more fully not only the nature of Coptic repression from entertainment fields such as dance that touch the public sphere, but also the more dangerous, often distant forces that are the true roots to these patterns of repression.

Hanna, Milad. Interview by Theodore May. Milad Hanna on Coptic Christians in Egypt. Daily News Egypt. 15 Jan. 2010. Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ari18DorJw

II. The question of Coptic identity carries through and is contested greatly among diasporas. Pheobe Farag explores this in her article "Arabs, Copts, Egyptians, Americans: An Exploration of Identity in the Diaspora"

Pheobe Farag’s article provides further insight into Coptic and Muslim identities not just in Egypt but also in the diaspora, providing a special lens into what it means to be a woman particularly in this group, and the additional questions of identity this raises. Taking up the majority of the article, Farag discusses the idea of Arab and Coptic identities, providing evidence for the various stances through surveying 30 different Egyptian Americans, the majority of whom are Coptic Egyptians in the diaspora, though the opinions of a few diasporic Egyptian Muslims add additional insight. First, Farag dives into that recurring question of what defines Coptic identity, this time, placed opposite Arab identity. She presents the common rhetoric among Coptic communities that they are the direct descendants of the Pharaohs, and their reasons to disidentify with the Arab label. Although herself a diasporic Coptic woman, Farag describes how she has come to tolerate the label through the understanding that it is more a “geopolitical linguistic appellation” than a religious or ethnic designation. To support this, she writes of how, culturally, Coptic Egyptians are Arab, and it is only a matter of faith that separates them from the others. Farag describes the frequent conflation in academia of “Arab” with “Muslim,” which likely contributes to the general Coptic aversion to the Arab label. Using the two terms interchangeably has led to the erasure of minority groups in the Middle East, causing groups such as the Coptic Egyptians to seek some other blanket identity that they can claim without fear of erasure, in this case, the ancient Egyptians. While her surveys show that many Copts do in fact cling tightly to this, others acknowledge the impossibility of definitively claiming a pure bloodlines due to the complexity of the history of the region. While identifying Copts as being the sole carriers of the pharaonic bloodlines is unrealistic, their claim of closest connection is not entirely unfounded, it just does not lie in biological evidence. Thus, Farag demonstrates how Copts inside and outside of Egypt situate themselves in relation to a broader Egyptian or pan-Arab identity, explaining some patterns of self-seclusion from popular culture such as dance, but also demonstrating opportunity for these gaps to be bridged in the understanding of the constructed nature of these identity differences.

Farag, Phoebe. "Arabs, Copts, Egyptians, Americans: An Exploration of Identity in the Diaspora." Al-Raida Journal [Online], 0 (2007): 28-34. Web. 16 Dec. 2019
http://www.alraidajournal.com/index.php/ALRJ/article/view/206