Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East

John Eibner, PhD, CEO of Christian Solidarity International

• Introduction, John Eibner Chapter 1: The Anatomy of Religious Cleansing: Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire (1914–1918), Boston, October 22, 2014, Taner AkçamChapter 2: Dhimmis No More: Christians’ Trauma in the Middle East, Bern, March 7, 2012, Daniel PipesChapter 3: Syria, the “Arab Spring,” and the Future of Christians and other Religious Minorities, Zurich, June 12, 2012, Habib MalikChapter 4: Islamist Majoritarian Democracy in Egypt: What it means for Religious Minorities Zurich, November 28, 2012, Mariz TadrosChapter 5: The “Arab Spring” and its Aftermath: Implications for Muslim–Christian Relations, Zurich, May 30, 2013, Michael Nazir-AliChapter 6: Preventing Genocide in the Middle East: The Continuing Relevance of the Turkish Experience and the Problem of Bias within the United Nations, Zurich, May 2, 2013, Hannibal TravisChapter 7: Remarks on the “Arab Spring” and Religious Minorities in a Shari’a-State, Zurich, November 19, 2013, Bassam TibiChapter 8: The Impact of the Arab Uprisings on Dhimmitude: Non-Muslims in the Middle East Today, Geneva, March 20, 2014, Bat Ye’orChapter 9: The IS Caliphate and the West’s Wars in Syria and Iraq: A Challenge to Religious Pluralism in the Middle East, Zurich, October 8, 2014, Patrick CockburnChapter 10: Religious Pluralism in the Middle East: A Challenge to the International Community, Boston, March 25, 2015, Amine GemayelChapter 11: Revisiting Turkey’s Policy toward Religious Minorities on the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide, Zurich, April 1, 2015, Cengiz AktarChapter 12: Social Pluralism, Religious Cleansing and “Hybrid Warfare” in Contemporary Syria, November 22, 2016, John EibnerChapter 13: Saudi Regional Interventions in the Middle East: Consequences for Local Societies, Zurich, October 27, 2015, Madawi Al-RasheedChapter 14: Can Religious Pluralism Survive Sectarian War in Syria and Beyond?, Zurich, March 14, 2016, Fabrice BalancheChapter 15: ISIS, Christians, and National Identity in the Middle East, Boston, April 7, 2016, Joshua LandisChapter 16: The Persecution of Christians in Today’s Middle East, Zurich, May 4, 2016, Daniel WilliamsChapter 17: The Challenges of Social Pluralism in Post-Revolutionary Egypt, Zurich, June 14, 2016, Mariz TadrosChapter 18: Saddam Hussein, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the Islamic State: Can Religious Pluralism Survive the Onslaught?, Zurich, October 25, 2016, William WardaChapter 19: The Christians of Lebanon: Surviving amidst Chaos, Boston, November 9, 2016 Marius DeebChapter 20: Christians of the Holy Land–Exodus, Disintegration, and Ideological Necrophilia Zurich, May 22, 2017, Franck SalamehAbout the Contributors

For more than a century, the delicate fabric of inter-communal relations in the Middle East has been unraveling, at the expense of religious and ethnic minorities. Multiple causes usually involve some combination of strident nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism. While in recent years, Western eyes have understandably been focused primarily on the threat that jihadist terrorism poses to their societies, but the ongoing existential threat to deep-rooted Christian communities and other religious and ethnic minorities is often ignored or accepted as inevitable. This collection of closely argued essays drawn from a cross-section of top-shelf scholars, journalists, human rights activists, and political practitioners highlights both the historical and contemporary dynamics that have placed Christian communities, in particular, under siege. It should serve as a wakeup call to all those who care about religious freedom, political pluralism, and human rights.