From Pluralism to Extinction? Perspectives and Challenges for Christians in the Middle East
From Pluralism to Extinction? Perspectives and Challenges for Christians in the Middle East
Contributor(s): Sotiris Roussos (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics and religion, Nationalism Studies, Migration Studies, Sociology of Politics, Sociology of Religion, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Mediterranean Politics; Armenian; Christians in the Middle East; Egypt; exclusion; foreign policy; Greek; Iraq; Islamic State; Lebanon; Palestinian; politics; Russian Orthodox; Secularism; Syria;
Summary/Abstract: Christian communities are deeply rooted in the Middle East, starting their witness since the first centuries of Christianity. The last hundred years of Middle East Christianity’s history went through a series of profound crises. Displacement by war, genocide and occupation leading to loss, emigration and exile seem to be the main experience of Christianity in the modern Middle East. Against this background of displacement, Christians have sought to resettle and build anew when allowed. They have been able to make significant cultural, political and economic contribution to Middle Eastern societies. In the last thirty years they are again facing ominous threat of extinction. Entering the new millennium, they are confronted with major difficulties and transformations in world politics. From 2011 Christians particularly in Syria and Iraq, have been suffering death and destruction in the hands of extremist Islamist groups. The volume is a fresh approach to the study of the Christian communities in the Middle East examining their relation to state, identity and politics. It questions main presuppositions and perceptions regarding Christianity in the Middle East, casts new light on the living Christian communities in the region and reflects on their future role.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-1-80135-225-3
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-1-80135-224-6
- Page Count: 209
- Publication Year: 2023
- Language: English
Armenian Communities in The Middle East: Losing The Past in The Future?
Armenian Communities in The Middle East: Losing The Past in The Future?
(Armenian Communities in The Middle East: Losing The Past in The Future?)
- Author(s):Hratch Tchilingirian
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Ethnohistory, Political history, Middle Ages, Modern Age, Recent History (1900 till today), Nationalism Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Politics and Identity
- Page Range:13-44
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:Armenian Communities; The Middle East; Losing The Past in The Future; Armenian; Western Armenia; Palestine; Armenian-Islamic; realpolitik; Arabs; Turks; Persians; Kurds; heterodox; Ismailism;
- Summary/Abstract:The Armenian presence in the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the ancestral homeland of Western Armenia being located today in the eastern regions of the Republic of Turkey. While the Armenians are indigenous in some parts of the Middle East, in other parts, they have formed diaspora communities due to a variety of historical circumstances. “Since history has no secret pockets and private laws, things Armenian are also things Near Eastern”, writes Seda Dadoyan, a leading scholar of the history of Armenian-Islamic relations. From the first century of the Christian era, there has been an Armenian presence in Jerusalem, when they came to Palestine as Roman legionnaires and administrators. There is a long and extensive history of “Armenian-Islamic realpolitik with Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds as well as heterodox Islam (such as Ismailism)”, according to Dadoyan. Medieval Arab sources provide extensive accounts of Armenians in the Middle East. Indeed, “Arminyah and al arman were presented [in the Arab sources] as indigenous elements of the Near East and the narrative did not single them out from the regional texture”, explains Dadoyan. Since the seventh century, Armenians “have been part of the Islamic world”, and part of what is now the Middle East and its peoples. In the late eighth century, heterodox Armenians allied with “the Muslims on the Abbasid frontiers lands”. More significantly, medieval Armenian histories put the origin of all treaties regulating Islamic-Armenian relations in the Medinan period of Islam (622-632) and see them through a “so-called ‘Prophet’s Oath to Armenians’ (allegedly given to an Armenian delegation from Jerusalem to Medianh)”.
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Ontological Security Theory: Christian ‘Existential Anxiety’ in Egypt and Lebanon
Ontological Security Theory: Christian ‘Existential Anxiety’ in Egypt and Lebanon
(Ontological Security Theory: Christian ‘Existential Anxiety’ in Egypt and Lebanon)
- Author(s):Zakia Aqra, Stavros Drakoularakos, Charitini Petrodaskalaki
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Christian Theology and Religion, Politics and religion, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:45-73
- No. of Pages:29
- Keywords:Ontological Security Theory; Christian; Existential Anxiety; Egypt; Lebanon; Christian; Middle East;
- Summary/Abstract:Christian communities in the Middle East have drawn a great deal of attention, given their precarious status amidst the violent wind that came along with the Arab uprisings that swept the region in the post-2011 era. Even though there is no doubt that they were all affected, each Christian community has its own context within the nation-state it belongs to and, by extension, the angst of the post-2011 dynamics has different implications for each one. In order to better understand these implications, this paper will employ Ontological Security Theory (OST), which provides conceptual tools with which state identity and foundational narratives are cultivated vis-à-vis the Christian community in Egypt and Lebanon. The dialectic relation between state and religious communities allows us to explore in-depth how Christian communities are impacted by political and/or societal changes as well as the extent to which they may drive or inhibit particular state identity formation in times of crisis.
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Middle Eastern Christianity in Syria and Iraq: At The Epicentre of The Rise of The Islamic State
Middle Eastern Christianity in Syria and Iraq: At The Epicentre of The Rise of The Islamic State
(Middle Eastern Christianity in Syria and Iraq: At The Epicentre of The Rise of The Islamic State)
- Author(s):Stavros Drakoularakos
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Christian Theology and Religion, Islam studies, Politics and religion, Politics and Identity
- Page Range:75-92
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:Middle Eastern Christianity; Syria; Iraq; Islamic State; Middle Eastern; Christianity;
- Summary/Abstract:The slogan “property of the Islamic State” was found graffitied on walls of houses, buildings and farms wherever and whenever Daesh forces successfully captured a city or village in Iraq and Syria. The exodus of Christians from those regions during the decade of the 2010s, and especially throughout the times of the rise and fall of the Islamic State, is estimated to amount to approximately at least one million people. The factors behind the mass exodus are chiefly located in the atrocities committed by Islamic State fighters, in addition to the wider ramifications of the various and ongoing infighting in the Syrian and Iraqi states, ever since the 2010 Arab uprisings and the 2003 Gulf war, respectively. Both Syria and Iraq host a large part of Middle Eastern Christianity followers and have been subject to numerous studies with regard to the co-optation policies between Church and state during the previous decades. However, the impact of the state-building and identity homogenisation processes of the Islamic State on the Christian communities themselves have been mainly confined within the larger examination of international and regional geopolitical antagonisms, the Sunni-Shia sectarian tensions, Kurdish state-building and irredentism, or the impact and aftermath of the Arab uprisings. Instead, this chapter opts for a focused lens on the Christian communities’ life shifts and limited options, both during the rise and initial establishment of the Islamic State, as well as following its eventual collapse.
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Turkish Policies Vis-À-Vis Christians: From Exclusion to Inclusion to Exclusion Again
Turkish Policies Vis-À-Vis Christians: From Exclusion to Inclusion to Exclusion Again
(Turkish Policies Vis-À-Vis Christians: From Exclusion to Inclusion to Exclusion Again)
- Author(s):Nikos Christofis
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Christian Theology and Religion, Islam studies, Politics and religion, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Sociology of Religion
- Page Range:93-110
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:Turkish Policies; Christians; Exclusion; Turkey; non-Muslim; Ottoman Empire; multi-cultural; multi-religious; multi-ethnic; ethnic backgrounds;
- Summary/Abstract:The Republic of Turkey, as a direct heir of the Ottoman Empire, inherited the empire’s multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic diversity. As a result, entering into modernity, Turkey itself is composed of several peoples with different ethnic backgrounds, among which a Christian community. Christians, once an essential composite of the Ottoman administration, is now a very small percentage of the total population, with its vast majority now living in Istanbul itself. With the fall of Istanbul in 1453, the proportion of the non-Muslim population in the Ottoman Empire reached 60 per cent overnight. This made it impossible for the Ottomans to rule over many different peoples through a legal system based on sharia. The millet system “set in motion the development of an order that involved autonomy and decentralisation for non-Muslim groups but within religious hierarchy”.
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The Greek/Palestinian Divide Within The Jerusalem Orthodox Church. The Institutional Aspect
The Greek/Palestinian Divide Within The Jerusalem Orthodox Church. The Institutional Aspect
(The Greek/Palestinian Divide Within The Jerusalem Orthodox Church. The Institutional Aspect)
- Author(s):Konstantinos Papastathis
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Eastern Orthodoxy
- Page Range:113-126
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Greek; Palestinian Divide; The Jerusalem Orthodox Church; Orthodox; Christian; Palestine; Greek hierarchy; non-ethnic; religious;
- Summary/Abstract:The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is the oldest Christian institution in Palestine. It has a monastic structure via the establishment of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher, and its aim is the protection of the Orthodox custodianship rights over the Hole Places, as defined by the so-called Status Quo Agreement. From the nineteenth century onwards, the national Greek element became dominant within the institution. This created an internal division between the Greek hierarchy and the Arab lay community, essentially overdetermined by the nation-building and the secularisation processes, which were the side-effects of: a) the tanzimat (reforms) that opened the way for the activation of the lay element in the decision-making processes of the millet; and b) the gradual building and crystallisation of the new collective identity, the nation. The outcome of these developments was the “gradual transformation of Church administrative structures from a non-ethnic religious representation to a nationality-based religious affiliation”.
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The Russian Orthodox Church and The State: The Middle East Connection
The Russian Orthodox Church and The State: The Middle East Connection
(The Russian Orthodox Church and The State: The Middle East Connection)
- Author(s):Ilias Tasopoulos
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics and religion, Eastern Orthodoxy, Sociology of Religion
- Page Range:127-148
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:The Russian Orthodox Church; The State; The Middle East Connection; Russian; Orthodox;
- Summary/Abstract:The stance of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) on Iraq and Syria shows several dimensions of its persistent international activities, affected by institutional aspects and geoecclesiastical considerations. The idea of a world centred around Russia that includes the Middle East intertwined with its rhetoric of protecting Christians from the unexpected developments that arose in both countries.
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Christian Right and US Middle East Policy: Foreign Policy in The Service of God’s Will
Christian Right and US Middle East Policy: Foreign Policy in The Service of God’s Will
(Christian Right and US Middle East Policy: Foreign Policy in The Service of God’s Will)
- Author(s):Marina Eleftheriadou
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Christian Theology and Religion, Politics and religion
- Page Range:149-168
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:Christian Right; Middle East Policy; Foreign Policy; Christian; Middle East; Policy; Religion; political landscape;
- Summary/Abstract:Religion has always been an integral feature of Unites States (US) socio-political landscape, even though the US were the first polity to ban the establishment of an official state-endorsed religion. The influence of religion in US policy-making has ebbed and flowed over time. Yet, it always lingered in what Huntington dubs as ‘American Civil Religion’, which rests on a pervasive—trans-religious and extra-religious—belief that Americans are ‘chosen’ people destined to play a unique role in the world. On top of this creeping religiosity, which manifests in the religious references, symbols and performative functions that ‘embellish’ various public rituals, actors across the religious spectrum have strived to influence policy-making on state and federal level. Their ability to do so suffered under the advent of modernity’s crushing rationality in the 19th and religiously-diverse migration in the early 20th century. Scopes trial (1925), best known as Monkey trial, was the symbolic turning point in the struggle between the forces of modernity and religion. The latter’s ridicule in the courtroom and the frontpages of national press spearheaded a period of geographical, social and political retreat. The secularisation thesis—a dominant paradigm within sociology of religion for the better part of the 20th century— theorised a deterministic drive to secularism, culminating in the eventual demise of religion as a potent socio-political force. In reality, US religious actors’ retreat lasted less than half a century.
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Christianity in The Modern Middle East: Current Situation and Future Challenges
Christianity in The Modern Middle East: Current Situation and Future Challenges
(Christianity in The Modern Middle East: Current Situation and Future Challenges)
- Author(s):Anthony O’Mahony
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Christian Theology and Religion, The Ottoman Empire
- Page Range:169-204
- No. of Pages:36
- Keywords:Christianity; The Modern Middle East; Current Situation; Future Challenges; Christian; Middle East; Ottoman Empire;
- Summary/Abstract:Christian presence across the Middle East (West Asia) region is facing a variety of acuate challenges which are increasingly considered as existential. In terms of history the current situation might be considered similar to that faced by Eastern Christianity as a consequence of the geopolitical changes in the late period of the Ottoman rule including World War I, the Armenian Genocide, the Syriac Sayfo, and the displacement of the entire Eastern Orthodox population during the early 1920’s with the establishment of the modern states of Greece and Turkey. With the collapse of Ottoman Empire, the wider geopolitical and ecclesial situation significantly changed across Europe, Russia and the former Ottoman territories directly having an impact upon Eastern Christianity this included the Bolshevik Revolution which brought about the near destruction of the Russian Orthodox Church. This in turn severed the historic ties with Eastern Churches in the Middle East until after World War II. In the aftermath of these traumatic events determined efforts were made by the Christian communities in the region to rebuild the Eastern Orthodox, Armenian and Syriac and the Eastern Catholic churches in the context of new nation-states and mandatory governance in the interwar Middle East. World War II followed by the imposition of Communist rule in the Eastern European states and the Cold War impacted upon all Eastern Christians in the Middle East. Regional conflict across the Middle East also felt upon all Christians from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the post war era to conflict in Iraq and Syria, the effects of war have challenged Christianity in the Middle East to the point that many are concerned for its survival. This has included the forced displacement and emigration of Christian from across the entire region. It is critical to understand the dynamics of Christian emigration from the Middle East, the first phase of which began in the later part of the nineteenth century and continued until World War I. During that time, thousands of Christians left the Ottoman Empire in search of economic opportunities, including greater religious freedom and political tolerance. After World War II, socio-economic factors continued to influence the emigration of Christians and to a lesser extent, of non-Christians. In the post-independence period, from the late 1940s to the present time, Christian emigration continued to rise, primarily due to economic insecurity but also due to political instability and military conflicts: the 1948 Palestinian–Israeli conflict, the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the Islamic revolution in Iran, and the series of wars in the Persian Gulf—the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1989), the First Gulf War (1990–1991), and the US lead invasion of Iraq, which began in 2003. To this should be added the Russian Federations invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022 which has an impact on the Eastern Christian churches in the Middle East sharpening relations between the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow and allowing for an increasing influence by the various states in the region on ecclesial affairs in a changing geopolitical situation. Patriarch Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church centred on Iraq stated “The world economic crisis and the global situation marked by the Russian military invasion in Ukraine are also having serious effects on the network of charitable and social works promoted by the Churches in the Middle East. This circumstance is driving the exodus of Christians from the region of the world where Jesus was born, died and rose again.”
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