Contested sovereignty: The relation between the state and the religious field in Egypt during the pandemic 2020/2021

With the first spark of the Coronavirus crisis, the novel virus opened many questions about the relationship between science, health, people, religion, and the state. The pandemic made it necessary to recall religion because the virus posed an existential security threat. According to Norris and Engelhardt (2004), religion flourishes where people lack existential security. However, the invocation of religion by the modern state is only through its religious institutions, which were established historically to control religion and define its scope. The thesis discusses the recall of religious institutions in Egypt during the outbreak of the pandemic according to maps and the dynamics of the struggle for power between religious institutions and the state. According to Nazih Ayubi (1996), the overstating State in Egypt faces a dilemma to provide more space for religious institutions to participate in controlling the pandemic; however, this will be on the account of the extending domination of the state. By applying Bourdieu's theory of the religious field, the thesis analyzes these maps of interactions between the state, society, and religious institutions during the pandemic on three levels of competition between (1) the State that monopolizes the religious field and official religious institutions, (2) among official religious institutions, and (3) official religious institutions and non-official religious actors. Although the analysis considers the state's emphasis on its social dominance, it views the state as a contested object and an arena of struggle. Therefore, the analysis of struggle includes various levels; (1) social level, in terms of fatwas, zakat, and the moral leadership of society, (2) spatial level, in terms of the mosques, (3) legal level, in terms of the constitution, and (4) international level and media level. Keywords: Religious institutions, overstating, Pandemic.