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  • 14 May 2012
    Palestine: an idea or a reality?

    In the midst of significant, but not necessarily tectonic, changes across the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, what has happened to Palestine, a virtual state clothed with a real idea, which had been at the forefront of the political imagination of the Arab masses for long decades? Dr Harry Hagopian examines long standing questions and recent developments with an eye to addressing 'the elephant in the room' of MENA politics.

  • 8 May 2012
    Christian-Muslim relations: all in this together?

    A recent London discussion of Christian-Muslim relations illustrated in an enlivening way the need for developing conversation and exchange to take place at a number of levels, says Dr Harry Hagopian. Intellectuals and theologians can set the tone on key issues, but Christians and Muslims alike have a responsibility in communal, political and inter-prersonal engagements to deal truthfully, to confront prejudices, to speak out against faith-based discrimination and to tackle the roots of extremism wherever they are found.

  • 27 Apr 2012
    Remembering Armenian sorrows and articulating Armenian hopes

    This week marks global remembrance of the 97th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. In an article that looks forward as well as back, Dr Harry Hagopian re-affirms the historical veracity of this genocide, not on the basis of presumed ethnic biases, but on the basis of the solid literature coming from international historians, organisations, scholars and lawyers - not least the International Association of Genocide Scholars. This confirms the horrid truth of forced deportations and massacres took place against Armenians of Turkish nationality (alongside Greeks, Assyrians and Nestorians) living in their homelands in Western Armenia during the ominous years of World War One. Out of recognition can spring hope, he suggests.

  • 19 Apr 2012
    Female genius and religion

    Key aspects of Christian (and notably Christendom) tradition have been used to cement or justify women's oppression. But dismissing Christianity simply as something to be thankfully consigned to history means consigning all the achievements of women who have identified themselves as Christian alongside it, says Alison Jasper. From this perspective, all Christian women are victims if not collaborators. A rounder picture is needed.

  • 10 Apr 2012
    Gender and the vestigial state of religion

    When governments are displaced they can persist within contemporary states as ‘religions’ that maintain their patriarchal origins and character, says Professor Naomi Goldenberg. Since women’s challenges to male domination have only met with some success in recent times within fairly contemporary forms of statecraft, if earlier states known as ‘religions’ are allowed too much authority over domains such as ‘the family’ or ‘the home,’ women will be the losers, she argues.

  • 6 Apr 2012
    Egypt, the Copts, religion and the search for a livable future

    “Egypt isn't a country we live in, but a country that lives within us” is a renowned saying from the late Pope Shenouda III. Following his death and questions about succession to his role, says Dr Harry Hagopian, the question now is whether Egypt will continue living within the Copts, and more pertinently how. This involves complex political, cultural, social and religious issues.

  • 2 Apr 2012
    An Archbishop's resignation: issues of power and responsibility

    What seems to have crystallised as the key to Archbishop Rowan Williams’ recent (somewhat early) resignation from his job, and as head of the global Anglican Communion, is the issue of sexuality. But, Alison Jasper suggests, this is part of a wider matrix of power and position connected to the deployment of the discursive category ‘religion’ and to the secular state acquiring a normative status.

  • 27 Mar 2012
    Syria: the mirror walls of shame

    The region Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region - Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Morocco, Yemen and many others - is a tinderbox ready to be set ablaze, says Dr Harry Hagopian. So can the collective wisdom of the international community overcome its short-term stratagems and leap forward with political determination? Or will the haunting predictions of a well-placed Syrian activist from Homs who wryly suggested that we are in for a decade of sporadic and prolonged civil wars indeed come true? The stakes are high in Syria and beyond.

  • 26 Mar 2012
    Media (mis)representations of ‘religion’ in the Middle East

    It is almost a truism to note that if the mainstream media is our only source of news regarding anything to do with religion (however that might be conceived) in the Middle East, or even the Middle East in general, we are in deep trouble, says Dr Michael Marten. Here he analyses some of the major misunderstandings, urging the BBC and others to 'up their game' and to have the courage to address difficult and contentious issues appropriately.

  • 23 Mar 2012
    Leading by personal example: an Egyptian lesson

    'Church leaders' are easily (if not inevitably) mired in politics, expectation and institutional intrigued. Those that shine through do so because of the pre-eminent qualities of love, commitment and example. This is one of the personal lesson Dr Harry Hagopian draws from the life of Pope Shenouda III, the highly respected Coptic Orthodox leader, who died recently.