With the specter of post-Spring Islamist rule looming, Christians in Egypt and Syria were forced to choose between secular autocracy and sectarian democracy. This article demonstrates that the status quo ante under Mubarak and al-Assad, though democratically deficient, put a (temporary) lid on civil hostilities and afforded Christian minorities with a modicum of secular protection and even prosperity, the degree of which sheds light on the relative absence of Syrian Christian protestors and the salient Coptic presence during the Egyptian revolution. Coptic revolutionary activity indicates that Christian support for quasi-secular dictatorships can be outweighed by the effect of sect-specific communal concerns and socio-economic grievances shared with Muslim compatriots. Framed by theories on minority-state relations and relying on interviews, surveys and new media sources, this article explores the interplay of economic interests, ideologies and state-institutional policies that determined political (in)action amongst Arab Christian minorities in two crucial countries of the region.