Middle East Christians

Ignoring the democracy versus pluralism dilemma fails to address the core issue facing both communities at the onset and consequently will not yield a Middle East friendlier to human rights and religious liberty. This debate is one that governments and politicians themselves cannot lead. Civil society is where this discussion must take place, and believers themselves are the ones who should lead it.

May Aladdin remind international society, and especially Christians, about their responsibility in the fight for a more plural and diverse Middle East.

Dr. Hellyer is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the RH Centre for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council in DC and Senior Associate Fellow in International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Thinking of the many hundreds of thousands of Coptic martyrs over the years makes me feel ashamed for us Christians living in the West and all over the world who have not yet recognized that the message of Jesus Christ is one that will bring suffering.

Recently, Providence editor Robert Nicholson sat down with Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. In a wide-ranging conversation, Hamid addressed the lack of cross-cultural understanding in the West, the value of pluralism, the possibilities of democratic reform, and the potential for increased Christian engagement with Muslim neighbors.

Some in the US government have suggested that we should make a grand bargain with Russia over Syria that would let Assad stay as Moscow curbed Iran’s power in the country. But such a deal would lead to the mass exile or massacre of civilians stuck in the international community’s failed de-escalation zone of Idlib and cement Iran’s control over Syria.

Governments in North Africa and West Asia don’t do enough to protect religious freedom. Ewelina Ochab’s chapter in a new book reviews the problem.

After becoming direct victims of ISIS violence in 2014, no significant Christian groups in northern Iraq chose neutrality, and most fought in Christian militias rather than integrating into larger Iraqi or Kurdish forces.

If war occurs between Israel and Lebanon, the embattled Christians of Lebanon will suffer in what would be yet another front of Iran’s quest for regional control.