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This chapter investigates how diaspora institutional entrepreneurs can reform social institutions and effectively overcome institutional decoupling. Nermien Riad is a US-based Copt and founder and CEO of the international development NGO Coptic Orphans. She aims to deepen and institutionalize the Coptic Church’s stated aim of reforming its social support programs from welfare to development and to persuade the Church to engage more systematically with the Coptic diaspora. I briefly describe the Coptic Orthodox Church, its dramatic reform in the twentieth century, and its evolving diaspora and development agendas. The next section describes Nermien Riad and Coptic Orphans’ origins, programming, and impacts on the Church and society. The next sections present a personality profile of Riad as an entrepreneur, and assess Riad’s and Coptic Orphan’s work as a diaspora institutional entrepreneur experience.

This chapter details the course of Christian–Muslim relations in the Islamic world in the twentieth century. It presents two case studies. The first focuses on Egypt, which in the first part of the twentieth century was the intellectual and publishing hub of the Muslim world, and hence was regarded by Western Christians as the key to its regeneration by the Christian gospel and “modern” ideas of reform. Egypt was also the home of Africa's oldest church, the Coptic Orthodox Church. The second case study examines a younger Christian community within a younger nation, that of the church in Indonesia. The Egyptian case study highlights the dissonance between the post-Enlightenment political philosophy of individual rights and freedom of religion that undergirds Western academic discourse on the subject of interreligious relations and the markedly different concept of religious toleration that prevails in Muslim majority states.

This chapter discusses Marcus Simaika's involvement in the dispute between the Copts and Ethiopians regarding what is known as Deir al-Sultan or the Imperial Monastery in Jerusalem. Ethiopia has long been acquainted with monotheism, and the Ethiopian Church is the largest of all the Oriental Orthodox churches. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has a longstanding relationship with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tawahedo Church. Tawahedo means 'unified,' referring to the single unified nature of Christ, as opposed to the belief in the two natures of Christ held by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and many others had refused to accept the two-natures doctrine decreed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and these churches are sometimes referred to as monophysite. Simaika maintained that Deir al-Sultan belonged to the Coptic community from time immemorial.

This chapter discusses Marcus Simaika's relationship with the Coptic patriarchs of his time as a member, then vice president, of the Coptic Community Council (Majlis al-Milli) for thirty-nine consecutive years. In his attempts to start a Coptic museum, which needed patriarchal approval, Simaika fought many battles and used much diplomacy and compromise in his dealings with the Coptic hierarchy. The full title of the patriarch, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, is “Pope and Lord Archbishop of the Great City of Alexandria and Patriarch of all Africa on the Holy Orthodox and Apostolic Throne of Saint Mark the Evangelist, Holy Apostle and Martyr, that is in Egypt, Pentapolis, Libya, Nubia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and all Africa.” These patriarchs include Cyril IV, Cyril V, and Yohannes XIX.

This chapter discusses Marcus Simaika's service to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Simaika's interest in the ancient Coptic churches was first aroused by the study of Dr. Alfred Joshua Butler's work on these churches, The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, published in two volumes in 1884. It was while staying at Butler's house in Oxford in the autumn of 1890 that Simaika met Somers Clarke, the architect responsible for restoring English cathedrals. Simaika also wrote a book in which he provides a brief account of the dawn of Christianity in Egypt. The chapter considers the emergence of Christian monasticism in Egypt and the role played by monks and missionaries in the formation of the Coptic Orthodox Church's character of submission, simplicity, and humility. It also describes the impact of the Arab conquests on the Copts and the rise of lay Coptic notables such as Muʻallim Ghali.

This chapter analyzes the extent to which the Egyptian public sphere, especially religious institutions were controlled by the ruling authoritarian regime. Eventually, both the state's dominance over institutions and society, along with the established religious institutions' discourse, became stagnant, which precipitated the development of new social movements that were able to mobilize people beyond the stagnant religious discourse. These developed a new discourse, based on human rights, freedoms and social equality. Through developing their new discourse, new secular social movements did not undermine Egyptian's religious consciousness, but rather developed new ideals, in harmony with the Egyptian political culture, but beyond the constraints of the main religious institutions.

This chapter discusses Marcus Simaika's role in the reformist movement within the Coptic Orthodox Church. To understand the position of the Copts in Egypt during Simaika's lifetime, it is important to revisit the year 1854, when Said Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali Pasha, became wali (viceroy) of Egypt. In that same year, Cyril IV ascended to the patriarchal throne as the 110th successor to Saint Mark. Two years later, the Hatt-i Humayon, the most important Turkish reform edict of the nineteenth century, was decreed by Sultan Abd al-Mejid I. This edict established community councils for Christian and other non-Muslim communities. Simaika became a member of the community council, or majlis milli, in 1889 and became involved in the campaign for church reform. The chapter examines Cyril V's banishment and triumphant return and the subsequent defeat of the reformist movement within the Coptic Church.

Melania the Elder and Melania the Younger both traveled to Egypt and visited monks there before settling in Jerusalem and founding monasteries there. Despite their longstanding reputation as prominent saints in Western churches, the impact of these two ascetic women upon the Egyptian church and its literature has been relatively minimal over the centuries. Neither Melania is included in the official list of saints and saints' days of the Coptic church. And yet, during the past four decades, the Melanias have made notable appearances in Arabic-language homilies and books produced by church leaders as part of a successful effort to revive Coptic monasticism in Egypt. This chapter looks at how these two Roman ascetic women have been reintroduced to the Egyptian faithful as models of monastic piety in the teachings of Pope Shenouda III and in literature produced by Matthew the Poor and other contemporary Coptic monks.

This chapter discusses Marcus Simaika's role in making the Coptic Museum a state institution of Egypt. In 1920, Fuad I, ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, visited the Coptic Museum. From that moment, the king conceived the idea of making the Coptic Museum a state museum and asked Simaika to cede the museum to the government. Simaika replied that he would submit the request to Cyril V. All objects in the museum belonged to the Coptic Orthodox Church, and Simaika would not have been able to transfer them from the different monasteries and churches without ecclesiastic approval and on the condition that they be exhibited in an annex to the Muʻallaqa Church and under the care of the priest of that church. The chapter describes the annexation of the Coptic Museum by the state and its nationalization, as well as its acquisitions and collections.