The term “Muslim minorities” is imported to our Islamic culture, and Al-Azhar has avoided it in its discourses, and in its documents and statements. The term carries within it the seeds of isolation and inferiority and paves the grounds for strife and schism. In fact, it initially alienates any minority, dismissing many of their religious and civil entitlements.

As far as I know, our Islamic culture does not acknowledge this term. It rather dismisses the term in favor of “full citizenship,” as stipulated in the “Medina Charter”. So, citizenship in Islam involves rights and duties for all, in line with foundations and standards that bring about justice and equality: “Indeed, Allah commands justice, grace, as well as courtesy to close relatives. He forbids indecency, wickedness, and aggression” (Qur’an 16: 90). So, they [the non-Muslims] have the same rights and duties that we have.

A Muslim citizen in Britain - for example - is a British citizen with full rights and duties. The same applies to a Christian Egyptian who is an Egyptian citizen with full rights and duties. In this capacity, neither can be described as a minority, a term that implies different degrees of citizenship. In my opinion, the consolidation of "citizenship" logic among Muslims in Europe - and in other societies of multiple identities and cultures - is a necessary step on the path of "positive integration," which we have called for in more than one Western capital. It sustains the integrity and cohesion of the country, and consolidates the sense of belonging, which is the basis of unity in the society. It also nurtures acceptance of cultural diversity and peaceful coexistence, and eliminates feelings of alienation that disturb loyalty, and make the citizens living abroad fluctuate between their homelands and the foreign lands in which they live, in their attempt to escape the sense of being a threatened minority at home.

Under contemporary government systems, we are bound to work on consolidating citizenship in the minds and cultures of the Muslims, as it is the impenetrable shield against colonial pretexts of protecting minorities under political conflicts and against their hegemonic and expansionist ambitions. Colonial powers employ the issue of “minorities” as a spearhead in their neocolonial projects of fragmentation and division (of colonized countries). The genuine concept of citizenship transcends difference in religion or sect, on the grounds that all are equal in rights and duties, and all are equal before the law. By corollary, all must defend this country and bear full responsibility towards it.