This week I have taken part in the first of what will be a monthly series of Premier Radio programmes on the MENA region – the full details are in the links at the foot of this page.
This week I have taken part in the first of what will be a monthly series of Premier Radio programmes on the MENA region – the full details are in the links at the foot of this page.
I suppose that I should start with a simple definition! The MENA in my title stands for ‘Middle East North Africa’ and it has become an acronym that associates itself with the geographical space where the so-called Arab Spring – popular uprisings, demonstrations, quest for democracy or spurts of violence – has been playing out for the past three years.
It all started on 17 December 2010 when Mohamed Bouazizi, a young vegetable vendor from the town of Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia, killed himself in protest against the rampant corruption gripping his country. As a result, a relentless campaign of civil resistance led to the ouster of the President and the range of events that followed this act of self-immolation have been lingering on with us – at times very violently, at others much less so.
Indeed, the popular upheavals in Tunisia were followed by those in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria whilst many other countries in the region are teetering on the edge of political precipices.
Much has been written about those uprisings and different analysts have interpreted them in their own ways. Mind you, at times, I truly despair from some experts’ explanations that often confuse rather than clarify the realities on the ground. In my more uncharitable moments, I must confess that I find myself thinking of William Baldwin’s flinty statement (used also by Shakespeare in Henry V) that “the empty vessel makes the loudest noise”!
But the bottom line is that those demonstrations were precipitated by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, lack of freedom or speech as well as other basic political freedoms and poor living conditions. I suppose that we in the West are fortunate that we have overstepped those historical chapters to some extent, and the way I have at times described those popular uprisings in the past is by suggesting that the men and women in the MENA are seeking nothing more and nothing less than their dignity and piece of bread – both in very short supply.
But why do I think that some of our listeners on Premier Radio might well be interested to have a deeper analysis of events in this part of the world? Surely, we have enough political uncertainty and economic woes ourselves that we need not take on the problems of others. Yet, I believe we have reasons to take a closer look.
For one, and most importantly for me, there are large numbers of indigenous Christians living in some of those countries. True, they are in their majority Arabs and their cultural norms are at times dissimilar to ours, but they too take their faith seriously and look to Jesus Christ as their Saviour. We cannot simply ignore them and must include them in our prayers. After all, I have been brought up with a strong belief that one key component of my Christian faith is its outreach. Even my own web-site, epektasis, adheres as faithfully as possible to the overarching Christian and ecumenical ethos of striving to ‘stretch forward’ (epekteinomenos in Greek) as we read St Paul in Phil 3:13.
But there is more too. A lot of those countries were once colonised by different Western Powers – namely Britain, France and Italy. We drew some of those boundaries before we pulled out. After all, did Sykes and Picot (an Englishman and a Frenchman) not draw the borders of countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq not to mention the arbitrary changes to Libya, Tunisia or the Gulf monarchies? In that sense, surely we bear some responsibility to events as they unfold today and we should perhaps evince our support and solidarity whenever possible.
And that support or solidarity – manifested in our constant prayers as much as actively – will form the kernel of the one-hour monthly programme that I will be doing with another rotating guest and with Marcus Jones as presenter.
So I invite you all to join us in showing our support for the Christians of the MENA region and in discovering some new truths, debunking some old myths and perhaps stretching out to those tens of thousands of Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican or Evangelical sisters and brothers who are witnessing to their faith daily under rather challenging circumstances.
As the Arabs of the MENA would say, Ahlan wa Sahlan! Or as Israelis would also add Barukh haba – even Barukh hanimtsa! But I would simply say ‘Welcome’ to the Middle East North Africa Analysis. I have spent over two decades working in second-track negotiations and international conflict resolution with the churches and politicians in the region and so hope you will like our take on the region and that we’ll even receive your feedback every time we are on air. After all, this is your programme!
* 29 August programme: http://www.premierradio.org.uk/listen/ondemand?mediaid={FAF5215F-DB2C-4F77-A0E6-2208B3672424}
* See more at: http://www.premier.org.uk/mena#sthash.xa2hUQrr.dpuf
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(c) Dr Harry Hagopian is an international lawyer, ecumenist and EU political consultant. He also acts as a Middle East and inter-faith advisor to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales and as Middle East consultant to ACEP (Christians in Politics) in Paris. He is an Ekklesia associate and regular contributor (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/HarryHagopian). Formerly an Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Committee and Executive Director of the Middle East Council of Churches, he is now an international fellow, Sorbonne III University, Paris, consultant to the Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide (UK), Ecumenical consultant to the Primate of Armenian Church in UK & Ireland, and author of The Armenian Church in the Holy Land. Dr Hagopian’s own website is www.epektasis.net Follow him on Twitter here: @harryhagopian