Mohamed Gamal Ali
Born in Egypt, Mohamed Gamal Ali holds a doctorate in political science from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University (2025). His thesis, “State-Religion Relations in Egypt and Tunisia: A Comparative Study in the Impact of Interactions between Political and Religious Elites (2011-2022)”, was co-supervised by Nathan Brown (George Washington University) and Nahed Ezzeldeen (Cairo University).
Since 2023, he has been a Research Officer at the American University in Cairo (AUC), within the “Pathways Beyond Neoliberalism” project on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. He is also an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the British University in Egypt (BUE).
His research addresses the relationship between religion and politics in the Middle East: the state’s religious policies, state-religion relations, and the role of religious actors in the public sphere. He previously worked on religious freedom at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
He is currently developing a research project on the political roles and practices of religious elites and official religious institutions in the Muslim world. As part of it, he is preparing a study on the role of official ulama in shaping and reforming personal-status laws and family policies in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey, the first step of a broader project on the political roles of official ulama across the Middle East and North Africa. He is also turning his doctoral thesis on state-religion relations in Egypt and Tunisia into an academic book.
Resources of this researcher
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article
Al-Azhar and Politics in Egypt in the Post-Arab Spring: Al-Azhar’s Position within State-Society Relations (2011-2021)
- Mohamed Gamal Ali
Presentation This chapter analyses the transformations of al-Azhar’s position within state-society relations in Egypt, from the 2011 revolution to 2021. A centuries-old religious institution,...
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article
The Politics of Family Laws in Egypt and Tunisia: A Comparative Study of State-Religion Relations
- Mohamed Gamal Ali
Abstract Egypt and Tunisia share many historical, cultural and political commonalities, yet their state-religion arrangements differ markedly, particularly regarding the scope of religious referenc...
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publication
The Return of Turbans. Al-Azhar’s Presence in Egyptian Society
- Mohamed Gamal Ali
Published in late 2024, “The Return of the Turbans: Al-Azhar’s Presence in Egyptian Society” is the culmination of Mohamad Gamal Ali’s master’s thesis in political sci...
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article
Exclusively for Adherents of ‘Divinely Revealed’ Religions?
- Mohamed Gamal Ali
How did the preparatory work for the Egyptian constitutions discuss issues of freedom of religion and belief? « The term “divinely revealed religions” is used in the constitution, laws, and some ju...
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videos
The concept of “citizenship” in the Azhari discourse. Problems and contradictions
- Mohamed Gamal Ali
The concept of “citizenship” in the Al-Azhar discourse, problems and contradictions Al-Azhar Foundation announces on various occasions its full adoption of the concept of “citizenship,”...
Resources related to
Freedom of Religion
videos
From regulating religious sound to transforming it into light: public, legal and architectural debates on the adhān
Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...
article
Religious minorities and spiritual assistance. Reflections on the project “Atlas of religious or belief minority rights” in the European Union
- Ilaria Valenzi
Abstract Developed within the multilevel system of legal sources, the category of "religious minority" takes on particular significance within the European Union, where a shared system of protectio...
article
“Inclusive Citizenship, the Right to a Place of Worship and Everyday Peace”, by Antonio Angelucci
- Antonio Angelucci
In an article published in the Italian journal Coscienza e Libertà (no. 69, 2025), Antonio Angelucci, associate professor of law and religion at the University of Insubria, examines the connection ...
article
Public order and religious family rights. Sustainability and limits of an evolving legal relationship
- Ilaria Valenzi
Abstract The public-order clause, which safeguards the fundamental principles of the legal order, is today tested by the circulation of family models rooted in religious legal systems. Ilaria Valen...
videos
Freedom of conscience, a contested yet resilient right
- Dominique Avon
Rome. In a conference given on November 28, 2024, at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Professor Dominique Avon from the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris traced the ...
publication
Speaking freely in Islam
- Hamadi Redissi
What is the Islamic doctrine of blasphemy, insult to God, religion and the Prophet? What about the prohibition of figurative representation of Muhammad? Can one openly believe or abjure in Islam? T...
publication
Religious minorities between the Mediterranean shores: a study of the status of religious minorities in the Mediterranean context (REMiMEsO) – Final Report
- Alessandro Ferrari
The REMiMESo project, led by Ilaria Valenzi and supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explores the situation of religious minorities in five Mediterranean countries: Israel, Morocco...
publication
Religious Freedom in Italy. An Impossible Paradigm
- Alessandro Ferrari
Italy, seat of the Pope and Vatican City, has a long and difficult relationship with religious freedom. Often identified as a quintessentially Catholic nation, Italy owes its unification to a polit...