On May 12th, CAWU staff and interns attended a book presentation by Professor Candace Lukasik of Mississippi State University hosted by the Centre for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ) in central Cairo. The event focused on Dr. Lukasik’s 2025 book Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire (NYU Press). Dialogue Across Borders previously published an extended interview with Dr. Lukasik focused on the topics of Coptic migration, Muslim-Christian relations and complexities of the transnational Coptic experience. We were grateful for this opportunity to further engage with her important work.

The event was held in CEDEJ's extensive library with participation from Egyptian and foreign students, researchers, practitioners, and the interested public. A concise summary of the main topics of the book preceded an interactive Q&A session which addressed numerous complexities surrounding Coptic transnational experience, narratives of persecution, Coptic approaches to the US immigration system, and grassroots intercommunal dynamics in Egypt. Likewise, a visit to CEDEJ provided us with insight into yet another space in Cairo closely aligned with DAB’s longstanding commitment to promoting dialogue through academic engagement and research.

(Dr. Candace Lukasik with the DAB/CAWU team.)

Undergirded by years of fieldwork in Egypt and the US, Martyrs and Migrants explores multiple dimensions of the transnatioanl Coptic experience. Moving beyond simplistic narratives portraying Copts either as a seamlessly integrated national community or as a perpetually persecuted minority in Egypt, the author critically deconstructs and reexamines these narratives by shedding light on majority-minority dynamics in Egypt and the US, the "imperial" instrumentalization of Coptic suffering, and the complexities of the US asylum and immigration system.

Through the concept of the "theopolitics of persecution," Dr. Lukasik examines how narratives of Coptic suffering become entangled with broader geopolitical, evangelical, and media discourses surrounding global Christian persecution. Instead of restricting herself to the persecution narratives often utilized in international Coptic advocacy, the author stresses the layered nature of Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt shaped not only by episodes of tension and discrimination, but also by everyday coexistence, local social dynamics, and class relations—factors often overlooked or minimized in persecution narratives. At the same time, the book highlights the complex predicament of Coptic communities shaped by their position as a religious minority in Egypt and an ethnic minority in the United States.

The book sheds light on important details regarding the US asylum system and its treatment of Coptic Christian asylum applicants after the Arab Spring. Drawing on her field research, first-hand engagement with Coptic asylum applicants, and observation of actual court cases, Dr. Lukasik explains that the legal rationale for granting asylum to Copts in the US in the previous decade became part of a general perception of the community as a whole as a persecuted group. She highlights a counterintuitive legal mechanism within the asylum system: individual claims of religious persecution often invite heightened legal scrutiny, while broader claims of mere belonging to a persecuted group with no claims of individual experiences of persecution significantly strengthen the likelihood of asylum approval. In this context, she stresses the gap between these asylum applicants and their claim to being part of a persecuted minority and the lives of people in rural Egypt who may experience intercommunal tensions exacerbated by complex socioeconomic dynamics. The reality is that most Coptic immigrants that have moved to the United States in recent decades have come through the U.S. visa lottery program rather than through asylum claims.

Finally, the book introduces another complex layer of Coptic transnational experience by stressing another challenge that the diaspora communities face—the conflict between secularism and conservative religious values. The author stresses the depth of this challenge to traditional Coptic communities through testimonies of Copts in the US, including the emerging discourse on rapprochement with Muslim diaspora communities in common opposition to secularization and liberal approaches to gender issues in school curriculums.

We very much look forward to following Dr. Lukasik's important work in the future.

Luka Renić

Associate Editor - Dialogue Across Borders

Director of Internship Programs - Center for Arab-West Understanding

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