Abstract
The status of Arab Christians provides a gauge for the peaceful coexistence of vulnerable ethnic and religious communities in the Middle East. A team of international scholars examines (1) Christian Cultural and Intellectual Life in the Islamic Middle East: A Shared History; (2) Human Rights, Combating Persecution, and the Responsibility To Protect; and (3) The Arab Spring, the Shia/Sunni Divide, and Their Impact on Regional and Geopolitical Tensions. The authors represent a variety of views based on their varied backgrounds. While their perspectives do not always agree, the multiple dimensions of their assessments, particularly their analyses of sectarianism, authoritarian regimes, the role of Islamic law, the persecution of religious and ethnic communities, and the “duty to protect,” provide valuable insights into crucial issues.
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Notes
- 1.
Griffith, Sidney H. “‘People of the Gospel; People of the Book’”: Christians and Christianity in the World of Islam,” The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam (Princeton University Press, 2008), 11.
- 2.
Paul S. Rowe, “The Middle Eastern Christian as Agent,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 42, No. 3 (August 2010), 472–474.
- 3.
L.C. Robson, “Recent Perspectives on Christians in the Modern Arab World,” History Compass, 9/4, 2011, 312–325.
- 4.
Ussama Makdisi, The Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2008), 8.
- 5.
Rowe, op. cit.
- 6.
Anthony O’Mahony, “The Contributions of Ancient Christian Communities to the Contemporary Middle East,” Conference on Christianity and Freedom: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Rome, Italy, December 13–14, 2013.
- 7.
See: Anh Nga Longva, Anne Sofie Roald (eds.), Religious minorities in the Middle East: Domination, Self-empowerment, Accommodation (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2012), 5. Seteney Shami, “‘Aqualliyya’/Minority in Modern Egyptian Discourse,” Carol Gluck and Anna L. Sing (eds.), Words in Motion (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 151–173. Also, Eliz Sanasarian, Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 66.
- 8.
Anh Nga Longva, Anne Sofie Roald (eds.), op. cit., 5.
- 9.
Seteney Shami, op. cit., 151–173. Also, Eliz Sanasarian, Religious Minorities in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 66, who states that during the discussions on the formulation of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, the Armenian deputy requested that Christians be referred to as a “community” rather than a “minority .” The author states, “there was a possibility that the forum was being used to convey a message to those who had equated Western imperialism with Christian minorities in Iran.”
- 10.
Benjamin Thomas White, The Emergence of Minorities in the Middle East: The Politics of Community in French Mandate Syria (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 26–31.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Ussama Makdisi, “The Problem of Sectarianism in the Middle East in an Age of Western Hegemony,” in Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel (eds.), Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017), 26.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Hans Kohn, “Nationalism,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2017, Web. 19 July 2017. https://www.britannica.com/print/article/405644
- 15.
Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 95.
- 16.
Benjamin Thomas White, op. cit., 26–31.
- 17.
Ussama Makdisi, “Ottoman Orientalism,” American Historical Review, Vol. 107, No. 3 (June 2002), 770.
- 18.
Erik Freas, Muslim-Christian Relations in Late Ottoman Palestine: Where Nationalism and Religion Intersect (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 157–158.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: op. cit.
- 21.
Ussama Makdisi, “The Problem of Sectarianism in the Middle East in an Age of Western Hegemony,” in Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel (eds.), Sectarianism: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017), 27.
- 22.
Engin Deniz Akarli, The Long Peace: Ottoman Lebanon, 1861–1920 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 31–33.
- 23.
Letter of greeting to participants in the Villanova conference on Christians in the Middle East, December 6, 2016. Cardinal Sandri hold the third most important position within the Vatican (after the Cardinal Secretary of State and the Pope himself), serving essentially as the chief of staff of the Secretariat of State. As Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, he heads the curial congregation that handles matters regarding the Eastern Catholic Churches and is the ex officio Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Oriental Institute that deals with Islam.
- 24.
“There Are No Minorities, only Citizens: The al-Azhar declaration calls for a renewed alliance between all Arab citizens: Muslims, Christians and those of other religions,” Oasis: Christians and Muslims in the Global World, April 13, 2017. http://www.oasiscenter.eu/articles/religions-and-the-public-sphere/2017/04/13/there-are-no-minorities-only-citizens
- 25.
Elizabeth Picard. Conclusion: Nation-Building and Minority Rights in the Middle East, “Religious Minorities in the Middle East: Domination, Self-empowerment, Accommodation,” Brill, 230–255, 2012. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00715384/document
- 26.
Holy See Press Office, Joint Statement on “Supporting the Human Rights of Christians and Other Communities, particularly in the Middle East” at the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council (Geneva, 13 March 2015), 13.03.2015. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2015/03/13/0186/00415.html
- 27.
Muslim leaders in Lebanon condemn persecution of Christians in the Middle East. “In the name of religious, humanitarian and national principles, the summit condemns religiously motivated attacks against Eastern Christians, including attacks against their homes, villages, property and places of worship, when in fact the Prophet had recommended that they be respected, protected and defended.” http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/muslim-leaders-in-lebanon-condemn-persecution-of-christians-in-the-middle-east-56617/
- 28.
Remarks of His Majesty King Abdullah II, Plenary Session of the 69th General Assembly the United Nations, New York, 24 September 2014. http://www.un.org/en/ga/69/meetings/gadebate/pdf/JO_en.pdf
- 29.
Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa and Asia,—and how it died (New York: Harperone, 2008), 5–12.
- 30.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Muslim Dialogue with the Church after Nostra Aetate,” Nostra Aetate, Pim Valkenberg, Anthony Cirelli (eds.), (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016), 110. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69zbs.15, Downloaded Wed, 15 March 2017.
- 31.
Sami El-Yousef, “Jerusalem Situation Update,” October 15, 2015, The Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Pontifical Mission: the papal agency for Middle East relief and development.
- 32.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on 10 December 1948.
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Ellis, K.C. (2018). Introduction. In: Ellis, K. (eds) Secular Nationalism and Citizenship in Muslim Countries. Minorities in West Asia and North Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71204-8_1
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