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.

While the work of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom is vital, the ambassador is most effective when he or she influences the department and US policy as a whole. The combination of ambassador-at-large and religion is thus a difficult one at State, so having someone as politically experienced as Brownback in the role is vital.