Remaining on the frontier

“Christians shall remain in the Middle East in spite of the difficulties. The time has come to pay tribute to these people who are suffering injustice”: that’s the conviction expressed by the Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus, the Most Rev. Youssef Soueif, during a debate held in Brussels on 6 April, as part of the work of the plenary of bishops of the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community (COMECE) dedicated to the Churches of the Maghreb and of the Middle East (6-8 April).Frontier Churches. “Christians, as remarked also by the Synod for the Middle East, are bearers of culture and hope, peace and reconciliation – said the Maronite archbishop – and for that reason represent a necessity both for Muslims and for non-believers. By placing man and his dignity at the centre, they also contribute to the structures of society, together with their fellow-citizens, and thus create the presuppositions to educate in diversity, charity, justice and above all forgiveness, a fundamental virtue in a land torn by conflicts”. Challenges are not lacking, of course; among them Archbishop Soueif mentioned “emigration and the relation with modernity”. Tackling these challenges, he said, “requires a long and difficult but not insuperable process, so long as Christian communities live in communion with each other and bear witness to the evangelical values by which they are distinguished”. The same question was also tackled by Nabil Kamal Khalife, a Lebanese geopolitical analyst, according to whom “dialogue alone is not enough to eliminate the divide between Christianity and Islam. For each religion considers itself to be the truer”. So what’s needed is “a geopolitical analysis that takes into account the fact that the Christian Churches are by definition frontier churches, at the point of intersection between the East (Islam) and the West (Christianity). If Christians were to leave the Middle East they would disappear from the history of this region. The problem of minorities remains vital and needs to be tackled on the basis of the political dimension which in Islamic societies is not divorced from the religious dimension”.Hoping in youth. “Widespread corruption, poverty, social crisis, and the suffocating political atmosphere”: according to Cardinal Antonios Naguib, Catholic Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria, these are the causes that unleashed the demonstrations of 25 January. But “the movement for renewal” of the youth of Tahrir Square, which that protest gave rise to, now “risks being obscured”. Speaking to the bishops of COMECE, gathered for their plenary assembly in Brussels, the Cardinal warned of the risk that “the Muslim Brotherhood could wrest this renewal from the hands of Egyptian youth. In contrast to the Muslim Brotherhood, the youth movement has no recognized leaders, and no structures to campaign for the next elections with some chance of success. They need time but don’t have any”. Another factor of risk for the democratic transition in Egypt is represented, according to Cardinal Naguib, by the debate on article 2 of the Constitution, which prescribes that the main source of law is Islamic law. “We as a church have decided not to raise the question in order not to prejudice national cohesion, deferring it to once the change to the Constitution has become a reality. We support democracy and that’s why we are concerned lest this article be maintained in the plan for the future Constitution”, said the Cardinal, recalling that “equality in the country is not applied in a fair way” despite the fact that there are articles that prescribe it “There are no religious motivations in the movement of 25 January”, concluded Naguib. “The rosy beginning now risks being obscured, but we continue to hope in these young people”.The role of Europe. The meeting of 6 April was a follow up to the one held the previous day at Strasbourg, in the seat of the European Parliament, again on the same issue. On this occasion Hans Gert Poettering, MEP and President of the Adenauer Foundation (Germany), maintained that “if peaceful revolutions prove successful in the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean, the existence of the clash of civilizations would be repudiated. Europe must support the transition taking place with every means at its disposal and insist that the way of religious tolerance becomes the normality”. This hope was also shared by the Maronite Archbishop Soueif, according to whom Europe ought to intervene in the Middle Eastern region “to create a wide area of peace and a politically and socially stable neighbourhood, so as to avoid risks and emergencies like those now being registered by the events in North Africa”.