Christians in the Middle East

Lord Touhig Excerpts

Friday 9th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Touhig]

My Lords, much has been written and spoken about the Arab spring. Many see it as a time when millions of people across the Middle East were liberated from tyranny, but of course not all of them were. For a great many, such as the people of Syria, the spring has yet to come. In Egypt, it looked for a while that the spring had passed very quickly through summer and autumn into winter. For the liberation experience of the Arab spring to mean anything, it must be for all Arabs, Christian as well as Muslim. Both communities must make common cause in the battle for freedom and democracy. There are some encouraging signs and small shoots that have appeared and need to be nurtured.

Recently, I read an article in the Tablet, written by Michael Gunn, a freelance journalist based in Cairo. In particular, he wrote about the Egyptian election campaign and made reference to Alexandria where there were signs that the electoral process was tilted towards the Islamists and posters for the hard-line Salafist groups caked the walls of the alleys. He also reported that in the mixed Muslim-Christian neighbourhoods there were good relations between Muslims and Christians, and that both communities shared concern about extremists. I believe that that shared concern can help to bridge the religious divide.

The Arab spring is complex and is not easily categorised. Each Arab country has a unique set of circumstances with differences and tensions between urban and rural populations and social class. Even more, the attitude of the older generation based on the pain of past conflicts is at times at odds with the aspirations of a better educated younger generation who have not experienced these conflicts. Despite our hopes for the Arab spring, there are still many real dangers for Christians in the region.

In the past few years, the pogrom in Iraq has shown terrible evidence of that. The success of the Muslim brothers in the Egyptian and Tunisian elections is proof of the strength of Islamist feeling. We must all hope that the experience of governing will bring its own constraints and might moderate previously hard-line views. The real problem is likely to be the growing influence of the Salafi groups and there is no easy answer to their brand of radicalism. But possibly the most effective challenge to it is likely to come from the Muslim brothers, resentful at finding their electoral base being usurped.

Across the region there are also strong Christian communities, such as in Lebanon, and signs of hope, such as the relative tolerance shown in some Gulf states. For me, tolerance is at the heart of the matter. I well remember my late old friend Leo Abse who, when he announced his retirement as a Member of Parliament, would give only one piece of advice to his successor. He said, “Tolerate everyone, tolerate everything but never tolerate the intolerant”. I believe that it is that tolerance that we need to encourage.

To portray all Middle Eastern Christians as oppressed does many of them a disservice. Christians are not above or apart from the Arabic-speaking cultures in which they were born. Many of their families go back many centuries, even to the time of our Lord. It is important to talk about the common good, rather than to focus exclusively on one religious minority since that reinforces the perception that Christians are somehow alien transplants without indigenous roots. Christians in the West need to be cautious and to recognise that while prayerful solidarity is a duty it needs careful expression to avoid giving the impression that we are acting as proxies for Western Governments, many of whom gave succour and aid to the police states that have just fallen.

It is salutary to remember that the great majority of victims of religious persecution in the region are not Christians but Muslims. The most fundamental point is that the fate of Christians in the Middle East is inextricably linked to the health of the societies of which they are part, which means that anything that contributes to creating prosperous, democratic and law-based states will help the Christian communities. Equally, anything that undermines a pluralist state will have a negative impact on Christians. A key indicator for us to watch will be the rising or declining legal status of women.

I know from discussions I have had with Dr David Ryall, the assistant general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, that the Catholic Church places great stress on religious freedom because it is fundamental to the health of our democracy and to our rights. It should be understood as a freedom for people of all faiths and looked at as a guarantee of non-compulsion for believers as well as non-believers.

As Christians living in the West our ability to influence developments within the Middle East is often limited. Possibly our most effective contribution is likely to be in engaging with our own Government, parliamentarians and officials, both in London and Brussels, so that they become more conscious of the importance of monitoring and promoting religious freedom. Central to that is an understanding on the part of policy-makers that religious freedom is necessary for a stable political order. Without a commitment to respecting the rights of minorities, Christians, often the most dynamic, entrepreneurial and secular elements within the region, will find emigration difficult to resist. Denuding the Middle East of Christians will in turn strengthen the hand of those who wish to see the region’s cultural mosaic smashed and destroyed.

Our Government, thankfully, have made a start. There have been some promising moves within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and all will welcome William Hague’s setting up and appointment of the Advisory Group on Human Rights. But I wonder if we can persuade him to go a step further. If the Foreign Secretary appointed an envoy for religious freedom, that would be one way of both expressing concern and attracting expertise within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and would be very useful indeed. In the United States, the State Department has the Office of International Religious Freedom which is led by an ambassador at large. That might be another way of achieving the objective I have just mentioned. Possibly, the European Union’s External Action Service might also look at this suggestion. I also certainly welcome the suggestion made by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Holy See’s equivalent to a foreign secretary, who, when addressing the 18th Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, proposed that we should have a world day against the persecution of Christians. This could be a right and proper focus for us across the world.

Christians and Muslims, although divided by faith, share a common humanity, and both faiths preach the importance of this common humanity. If we can unite around that common humanity, we can tolerate our religious differences as a first step and then learn to live in peace as a second step.