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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2022
The relative ignorance of Armenian narratives in the analysis of current affairs in the Middle East raised by several authors in this roundtable is symptomatic of a larger problem facing ethno-religious minorities in the region. Until the 1990s, Western exposure to Middle Eastern Christianity in both academic and popular contexts was minimal at best. Outside specific studies of notable groups, scholars largely ignored non-Muslim religious sects. At the level of popular discourse, political Islam had illuminated the majoritarian religious impulses of the region, contributing to common Orientalist stereotypes of Arab and Muslim political culture.1 The presence of several million indigenous Christians, the vast majority of whom represented ancient indigenous communities, was largely ignored among academics and journalists. The notable exception was Lebanon, where Christian participation in the drama of the civil conflict of the 1980s was often noted in the press and occasionally scrutinized in academia.
1 Said, Edward, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978)Google Scholar; Said, Covering Islam (New York: Vintage, 1981).
2 See, for example, Dalrymple, William, From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East (New York: Owl Books, 1997)Google Scholar; Sennot, Charles, The Body and the Blood: The Middle East's Vanishing Christians and the Possibility for Peace (New York: Public Affairs, 2002)Google Scholar; Hammer, Joshua, A Season in Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place, (New York: Free Press, 2003)Google Scholar.
3 Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003); The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008); The Lost History of Christianity (New York: HarperOne, 2009).
4 Betty Jane Bailey and J. Martin Bailey, Who Are the Christians in the Middle East? (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003).
5 S. S. Hasan, Christians versus Muslims in Contemporary Egypt (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003); Suha Rassam, Christianity in Iraq (London: Gracewing, 2005); Mariz Tadros, Copts at the Crossroads (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2013).
6 Don Belt, “The Forgotten Faithful,” National Geographic 215, no. 6 (2009): 78–97.
7 Ethan Bronner, “Mideast's Christians Losing Numbers and Sway,” New York Times, 13 May 2009.
8 Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for the Middle East, “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness,” 2009, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20091208_lineamenta-mo_en.html.
9 Paul Marshall, Their Blood Cries Out (Dallas: Word, 1997).
10 Allen D. Hertzke, Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004), 183–236.
11 Paul S. Rowe, “Four Guys and a Fax Machine? Diasporas, New Information Technologies, and the Internationalization of Religion in Egypt,” Journal of Church and State 43, no. 1 (2001): 88–89.
12 Hilal Khashan, “Dateline: Arab Uprisings May Doom Middle East Christians,” Middle East Quarterly 21, no. 4 (2014): 1–9.
13 Lauren Markoe, “‘In Defense of Christians’ Seeks to Protect Brethren from Egypt to Iraq,” Washington Post, 10 September 2014.
14 Quoted in Kathryn Jean Lopez, “In Defense of Christians,” National Review, 15 September 2014, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/defense-christians-kathryn-jean-lopez.
15 Ewelina Ochab, “What Will We Tell Christian Minorities in the Middle East This Christmas?” Forbes, 23 December 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/12/23/what-will-we-tell-christian-minorities-in-the-middle-east-this-christmas/?sh=4976aa585dab; Erasmus, “The Politics of Helping Middle Eastern Christians: Good and Bad News for Beleaguered Faith Groups and Their Supporters,” Economist, 27 October 2017, https://www.economist.com/erasmus/2017/10/27/the-politics-of-helping-middle-eastern-christians.
16 Thomas F. Farr, “Religious Freedom and International Diplomacy,” in The Future of Religious Freedom: Global Challenges, ed. Allen D. Hertzke (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 342.
17 Stephen Rasche, The Disappearing People: The Tragic Fate of Christians in the Middle East (New York: Bombardier Books, 2020), 67–68, 71, 78–87.
18 Knox Thames and Sarhang Hamasaeed, “A New Test for Iraq's Democracy and Stability,” United States Institute of Peace, 7 March 2022, https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/03/new-test-iraqs-democracy-and-stability.
19 Mark Farha and Salma Mousa, “Secular Autocracy vs. Sectarian Democracy? Weighing Reasons for Christian Support for Regime Transition in Syria and Egypt,” Mediterranean Politics 20, no. 2 (2015): 178–97.
20 Ceren Belge and Ekrem Karakoç, “Minorities in the Middle East: Ethnicity, Religion, and Support for Authoritarianism,” Political Research Quarterly 68, no. 2 (2015): 280–92.
21 Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015), 42.
22 Ibid., 114.
23 Mahmoud, Saba, Religious Difference in a Secular Age (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 92.
24 Ibid., 39.
25 Shaun Walker, “Orbán Deploys Christianity with a Twist to Tighten Grip on Hungary,” Guardian, 14 July 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/14/viktor-orban-budapest-hungary-christianity-with-a-twist.
26 Melani McAlister, “Evangelical Populist Internationalism and the Politics of Persecution,” Review of Faith and International Affairs 17, no. 3 (2019): 105–17.