The Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID) is a United Kingdom-based organization that analyzes the impact religious inequality has on social and economic development in Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria, and Pakistan. It advocates for developing nations to end religious persecution to give all citizens access to education, healthcare, jobs, and voting. It was founded in 2018 by Mariz Tadros, an assistant professor from the American University in Cairo, and Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London Angaelos. CREID’s strategic partners include the Al-Khoei Foundation, Minority Rights Group International, Refcemi, and the Institute of Development Studies. The program is funded by U.K. taxpayers through the U.K. Aid program.  ¹

Projects

Egypt

Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development runs a program in Egypt that asks youth belonging to religious minority groups to document the oral heritage of their religions. CREID intends for the program to bring social cohesion across different religious groups by increasing religious understanding and education. ²

Nigeria

In 2023, CREID released a report about the threats faced by Christian men and women in Nigeria, which is about 55 percent Muslim and 45 percent Christian. The study covered the intersecting threats and vulnerabilities of Christian men and women in the region such as violence, governmental bias against Christians, forced conversion, education, and financial freedom. ³ CREID determined that Western-style education programs should be put into place so that Christian and Muslim men can “become better husbands who will eschew unhealthy patriarchal practices.” ⁴

India

In 2021, CREID released an article covering the impact that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which espouses Hindu nationalism, has had on religious freedom since it took power in India. The article discusses how the party has created laws, such as its citizenship law, which legally conflates being an Indian and Hindu. The article suggests that these laws are causing non-Hindus to be excluded from religious freedom calling it an “assault on one of the fundamental tenets of wellbeing.” ⁵

CREID proposes that political groups forcing a group identity through one religion is a global problem that should be combatted. ⁵

People

Mariz Tadros is the director and co-founder of CREID. ⁶ She is a professor of politics and development who specializes in the Middle East, specifically “democratization, Islamist politics, gender, sectarianism, human security and religion and development.” ⁷ Tadros got her doctorate from the University of Oxford and worked as an assistant professor at the American University in Cairo. She is a research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies and has worked as a consultant to the Ford Foundation. ⁷

Angaelos, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, is the co-founder of CREID, as well as the founder and director of Refcemi. ⁶ He was born in Egypt and moved to Australia when he was young and lived the rest of his childhood there. Angaelos earned a degree in political science and began law school before he moved back to Egypt in 1990 and became a monk. In 1995, he was assigned to the United Kingdom where he worked as a parish priest until becoming a bishop in 1999. In 2017, he became the first Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London and now focuses on international religious freedom efforts in Egypt, the Middle East, and North Africa. ⁸

1. “Who We Are.” CREID. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://creid.ac/about-us/. 
2. “Interfaith Service Delivery: Gathering Community Oral Heritage for Social Cohesion in Egypt.” CREID. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://creid.ac/blog/2021/05/26/creid-project-summary-gathering-community-oral-heritage-for-social-cohesion-in-egypt/. 
3. DanFulani Tsilpi, Chikas, Christine Samuel, Katung John Kwasau, Oluwafunmilayo Para-Mallam, and Philip Hayab John. “Understanding Intersecting Threats and Vulnerabilities Facing Christian Women and Men in Ungwan Bawa and Saminaka, Kaduna State, Nigeria.” CREID, February 17, 2023. https://creid.ac/blog/2023/02/17/understanding-intersecting-threats-and-vulnerabilities-facing-christian-women-and-men-in-ungwan-bawa-and-saminaka-kaduna-state-nigeria/. 
4. Para-Mallam, Funmi, Philip Hayab John, Chikas Danfulani Tsilpi, Katung John Kwasau, and Christine Samuel. “Understanding Intersecting Threats and Vulnerabilities Facing Christian Women and Men in Ungwan Bawa and Saminaka, Kaduna State, Nigeria”. The Institute of Development Studies and Partner Organisations, February 8, 2023. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12413/17864. 
5. Tadros, Mariz. “Stop Homogenising Us: Mixing and Matching Faith and Beliefs in India and Beyond.” CREID, May 21, 2021. https://creid.ac/blog/2021/05/21/stop-homogenising-us-mixing-and-matching-faith-and-beliefs-in-india-and-beyond/. 
6. “Steering Committee.” CREID. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://creid.ac/about-us/. 
7. “Mariz Tadros.” Institute of Development Studies. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://www.ids.ac.uk/people/mariz-tadros/. 
8. “Archbishop Angaelos of London.” Bishop Angaelos.org. Accessed September 1, 2025. http://www.bishopangaelos.org/about-Bishop-Angaelos.