Why would restoring a church have caused Muslims to be enraged? Why would church renovations be a topic for a Friday sermon in a mosque? Why would Egyptian military stand by and do nothing? Or run over protestors? Why was the attack denied and covered over by the media? The answers are theological: they involve Islamic political theology.

In recent weeks a series of incidents in Egypt give evidence that, post-Mubarak, the Copts are being pressured to assume the time-warped status of dhimmis, a captive people in their own native lands, whose status is to be tightly circumscribed by traditional sharia law.

Mark Durie, a member of the ETHOS Islam Think Tank, reflects on the relationship between popular movements for democracy in the Middle East and the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’