By Mohamed Saad Khairallah –
On November 14, the Egyptian program Dawlat al-Tilawa (Recitation State) was launched. It is a major religious competition aimed at discovering and nurturing young talents in Quranic recitation and tajweed. The program was launched through direct cooperation between the Ministry of Endowments and the United Media Services Company, officially owned by the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, and attracted more than fourteen thousand participants. The prizes amount to approximately 3.5 million Egyptian pounds, including recording the Quran in the winners’ voices and leading Taraweeh prayers at Al-Imam Al-Hussein Mosque. The program is broadcast on Al-Hayat, CBC, Al-Nas, Misr Quran Kareem, and the Watch It platform every Friday and Saturday evening.
From the moment the competition was announced, it sparked widespread public debate across social media. One group sees it as a positive initiative worthy of praise, while another considers it a catastrophic step that deepens a trajectory threatening the concept of citizenship that Egyptians hope to achieve one day. The overall scene suggests a new development: increased religious rigidity and the expansion of a singular ideological discourse in the public sphere, at the expense of the religious and intellectual diversity that a modern state should uphold.
Amid this heated controversy, I received numerous questions and inquiries regarding my opinion on what is happening, with dozens of messages reaching me across my platforms. I therefore intended this article to serve as a clear response to all those inquiries.
I would argue that this program, in both title and content, is not merely a religious competition; it is an indicator of a political direction that reshapes the public sphere according to a single ideological identity, excluding all others. The use of state media and religious tools in a single project of this magnitude reveals a transfer of authority from managing religious affairs to engineering identity itself, raising genuine concerns about the future of pluralism and the remaining concept of “citizen” in the often-called ‘Republic of Soldiers.’
This discourse clearly carries an exclusionary character, removing millions of citizens from the public sphere whose identities do not conform to the imposed ideological template. These groups include Copts of various denominations (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant), Baha’is, atheists, non-religious individuals, agnostics, as well as small or nearly extinct religious minorities, such as Jews, whose population decreased from around eighty thousand to fewer than ten today. Other affected groups include Jehovah’s Witnesses and non-traditional spiritual and Sufi paths.
The message here goes beyond cultural discourse; it constitutes a systematic dismantling of the national fabric and a redefinition of citizenship based on a narrow ideological standard. In other words, the state issues a clear warning to those with no place in the public space. This warning does not remain symbolic but opens the door to a catastrophic stage of social restriction based on faith or the lack thereof.
Thus, the term Dawlat al-Tilawa (Recitation State) is not merely a title for a television program, but a political and cultural declaration in which the regime asserts the right to shape national identity according to a despotic logic. The real danger emerges when ideological difference becomes a reason for exclusion, citizenship disintegrates, justice fades, and society is cast into the structural marginalization that swallows millions of its members.
Let us imagine, for a moment, the feelings of millions of Egyptians with differing beliefs (Copts and the other groups previously mentioned) as they turn on their televisions at home to find a program funded by the state from their taxes, promoting a “different book” they do not believe in at all. What makes the situation even more alarming is that scholars belonging to this current trend issue fatwas, interpretations, and legitimizations that effectively permit the exclusion of these groups without any hesitation, based on the premise that the state officially defines itself as Islamic.
Here lies a stark paradox: the undeniable truth is that the Copts of Egypt are the country’s indigenous population, who have preserved by all possible means the roots of the ancient Egyptian civilization since the Islamic occupation of Egypt, I repeat: the Islamic occupation, which occurred between 19 AH (640 CE) and 21 AH (642 CE), led by the invading commander Amr ibn al-As.
I am also reminded of the philosopher John Rawls, who said: “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions,” a stark reminder that a state that excludes some of its citizens loses its foremost virtue. If only the rulers of my country, the ones who have been marginalize,d would listen.
__________________________
Mohamed Saad Khairallah is a political analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs and Islamic movements. He is also an opinion writer and a member of the Swedish PEN.
