The plight of religious minorities in the Middle East is often attributed to the failure of secularism to take root in the region Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges this assessment by examining four cornerstones of secularism--political & civil equality minority rights religious freedom & the legal separation of private & public domains Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Egypt with Coptic Orthodox Christians & Bahais--religious minorities in a predominantly Muslim country--Saba Mahmood shows how modern secular governance has exacerbated religious tensions & inequalities rather than reduced them Tracing the historical career of secular legal concepts in the colonial & postcolonial Middle East she explores how contradictions at the very heart of political secularism have aggravated & amplified existing forms of Islamic hierarchy bringing minority relations in Egypt to a new historical impasse Through a close examination of Egyptian court cases & constitutional debates about minority rights conflicts around family law & controversies over freedom of expression Mahmood invites us to reflect on the entwined histories of secularism in the Middle East & Europe A provocative work of scholarship Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges us to rethink the promise & limits of the secular ideal of religious equality