Secularism, Postsecularism, and States of Exception in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and Its Aftermath

This chapter analyses the power of and resistance to secularism before, during and after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and advances three main arguments. First, the long-standing polarization between secularists and Islamists in Egypt should be accounted for as an expression of the state’s sovereign power to define the space and roles that religion may have in society in order to divide the opposition among competing secularist and Islamist currents. Second, the 2011 revolution was characterized by postsecular forms of opposition to the regime which saw the convergence of secularist and Islamist forces in the name of a common idea of justice. Third the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution has seen the restoration of the power of secularism and thus an exacerbation of the secularist/Islamist polarization.