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Published on Monday, 25 September 2017
The challenges facing Christians in the Arab world

By Frédéric Mounier/ la.croix.com :

Dominican Fr Jean-Jacques Pérennès, who is head of the Biblical School of Jerusalem, discusses the challenges facing Christians in the Arab world.

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Coinciding with the “Christians of the Orient. Two thousand years of history” exhibition organized by the Institute of the Arab World, La Croix will over two weeks publish a series examining the life of these communities both in their country of origin and around the world. In this article, Dominican Fr Jean-Jacques Pérennès, who is head of the Biblical School of Jerusalem, recalls the challenges that they are facing.

Why are the Christians of the Orient so little known?
Fr Jean-Jacques Pérennès: In the first instance, we need to emphasize that Christians of Arabic culture and language do exist in the Orient.

Too often, westerners perceive Arabs as Muslims. Moreover, many Muslims too believe that an Arab cannot be a Christian. It is like a negative mirror game.

Nevertheless, it is curious that people in the West, with so much access to information, are still surprised that there are many Arab Christians.

It is not rare for an Arab Christian in France to be asked if he converted recently! Yet Christian Arabs have existed since the time of the Gauls! There is an Arabic Christianity that goes back to apostolic times.

Doesn’t such a negative view of Oriental Christians risk harming them?
Fr Jean-Jacques Pérennès: In the troubled context of the last thirty years, it is important to offer a positive image of Oriental Christianity, which we usually only refer to in terms of its troubles and exiles.

However, these very ancient churches possess a rich cultural, liturgical and iconographic heritage.

As John Paul II once said, Oriental Christianity in a sense represents our “second lung".
Oriental Christians need to become conscious of this. People need to understand what they can expect from each other. We have a lot to learn from each other’s Christian cultures.

What status can these Christians claim?
Fr Jean-Jacques Pérennès: Christian Arabs do not want to be considered as a minority or as a group of leftovers. No, they are full citizens of their countries, or in any case, they should be. They are at home there as much as Muslims are.

Genuine, cultivated and open Muslims recognize the significance of the richness of Oriental Christianity. However, the radical Islam which is developing now is an Islam without culture.

Statistically, these Christians form a minority. However, we need to insist that they are not primarily minority groups. They are citizens. Not second class citizens. Or in any case, they should not be.

At this level, things are changing in the Muslim world. The exhibition at the Institute of the Arab World could help certain Muslim leaders to reflect. In Cairo, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar recently published several documents on the citizenship of Christians.

The battle for citizenship really is yet to be accomplished. During the Arab Spring, of which I have a positive view, there was a genuine debate on these issues followed by a backpedaling after the rise of radical Islamist movements or the hardening of military regimes.

These countries are trapped between military-backed secular nationalism and Islamism. They are looking for a position between these two poles, without finding it. The path is narrow.

How should Oriental Christians be protected?
Fr Jean-Jacques Pérennès: Unfortunately, as a result of the dramas of the last thirty years, they are increasingly becoming a minority. Here in Palestine, after the wars of 1948 and 1967, many left.

Iraq also experienced another great wave of departures. At the beginning of the 1990s, there were 1.4 million Christians but there are now only 300,000 to 400,000.

It is probable that those who left will not come back. The only group who have truly remained stable are the Egyptian Copts, who are now suffering a very tough trial.

The paradox is that fifty years ago these issues did not exist. In Egypt, people did not ask if you were Muslim, Christian or Jewish. Now, it is unthinkable for a Christian to be a member of the national football team. If a Christian scored a goal, it would a big event!
This change did not happen simply because of radical Islamism but also as a result of a kind of generalized cultural impregnation.

Leaving aside wars and exiles, what challenges are these churches facing?
Fr Jean-Jacques Pérennès: Christians do have a genuine problem, namely a ghetto mentality. They live together, which is understandable as a result of a desire to protect each other.

There are clubs organized around the churches because parents don’t want their daughters to fall in love with Muslim boys. So they mix among themselves.

People will tell you to take a certain taxi because the driver is a Christian or to shop at a particular shop because the owner is a Christian.

It is legitimate to want to support the members of one’s own community. However, a Muslim taxi can also be a good taxi! There is a risk of a lack of openness. Hence, the challenge to move from a sociological faith to a freely chosen, adult faith.

After being exposed to life in the West, these Christians begin to appreciate that Christianity here is based on personal adhesion or belonging.

Often, the West only thinks of assisting these churches financially. I don’t think that is the best service that we can offer.

We need to stimulate them and invite them to dare to live in a pluralist society where Christianity is not self-evident and to involve themselves in a debate with societal issues.

We need to encourage them to become agents and not to simply entrench themselves with a Christian world.