Listen to the article
How to live honorably as Christians in the Arab-Muslim world. This is the central question posed in the book “Christians in Arab Politics, Reclaiming the Pact of Citizenship,” a short essay by Tarek Mitri (128 pages), former Minister, former Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Libya, and current Dean of Saint George University in Beirut.
The author acknowledges that this question has differentiated answers depending on the countries, cultures, political regimes, and demographic data. However, he specifies: “Through trauma, disappointments, and uncertainties, there has always been a third way contrasting with the path chosen by those who opt exclusively for activism centered on minorities (the alliance of minorities) or those who choose the silence of fear and resignation.”
In essence, aside from a historical part that takes us through empires, civilizations, languages, and communities of the last two millennia, the book, which gathers a set of conferences, proposes to transcend the status of “minority” and advocates, for this end, for the “reinvention” of the “pact of citizenship” forged at the dawn of Islamic history (7th century) between Christians and Muslims, before the concept of “dhimmitude” was shaped and regulated relations with Christians in Islamic lands.
Rooted in religion, this “reinvention” is also possible, according to Mitri, by “reclaiming” the spirit of the Nahda of the early 20th century, understood as the accession to secular modernity and the advent of critical thinking in all domains.
An Islamic-Christian Pathway
To these two paths, one religious, the other “civil,” is added the Islamic-Christian pathway opened by the Declaration of Human Fraternity signed in 2019 in Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis and Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb of al-Azhar. Although not mentioned by the author, this pathway particularly reinforces the religious option mentioned by the former minister since it directly proposes relinquishing, in favor of a citizenship pact, the “classical” Islamic law concept that only Muslims are full citizens of an Islamic society.
“The concept of citizenship,” asserts the Declaration of Human Fraternity, “is based on equality of rights and duties, under the shade of which all enjoy justice. Therefore, it is necessary to commit to establishing in our societies the concept of full citizenship and to renounce the discriminatory use of the term minorities (…).”
“It goes without saying,” Tarek Mitri nuances realistically, “that the future of Christians in the Arab world depends not only on the contributions they are capable of but also on the attention their Muslim compatriots can provide them. Christians deserve and also need attention that is not condescending but rather an awareness of a common good, recognition of the religious and cultural value of plurality — the preservation of which would spare the Arab world the sad face of uniformity.”
Entrusted as a Pledge to Muslims
These lines are central. In support of Mr. Mitri’s statements, it is worth recalling that a prominent deceased Shiite religious figure, Imam Sheikh Mohammed Mehdi Chamseddine, stated in his book ‘Testament’ that Muslims in Lebanon must act as if Christians were a pledge entrusted to them.
In this posthumous work published by his son and spiritual and political heir, Ibrahim Chamseddine, he advanced: “I consider it the responsibility of Arabs and Muslims to encourage, by all means, Eastern Christians to regain the fullness of their presence, efficiency, and role in decision-making and the course of history; and that there is a complete partnership in this area between Muslims and Christians, wherever they may be (…). Intellectual, political, and religious bodies, the media, and cultural authorities must insist, with all their might, on this point.”
Today, Sheikh Abdel Latif Deriane, the Mufti of the Republic, with his statement, “Lebanon would no longer be Lebanon without the Christians,” is saying the same thing.
An End to the Nostalgia for “Arab Unity”
In any case, works like that of Tarek Mitri should definitively put an end to the nostalgia for “Arab unity,” as it still needlessly persists in some quarters. The book is a critique in itself of the unifying ideologies into which certain Arab countries have strayed, which, under the pretext of unity, sought to abolish particularities in a single ideological crucible: Nasserism and Ba’athism are the best examples. Lebanon suffered and lost a lot of time because of this childish desire for push-button unity. Was it not enough for rulers to unify in justice? Did they have to standardize subjection?
On the other hand, it is not useless to note that citizenship and the aspiration for unity that accompanies it can arise from factors other than mere political voluntarism. Thus, it naturally appeared in Lebanon as an episode of the “Arab Spring.” We experienced, for a brief moment, a fully citizen-conscious awakening of our Lebanese identity during the popular uprising of September 2019. Unfortunately, these uprisings were met with ideological barriers that blocked them. We can console ourselves by affirming that the repression of this “spring” and that of other Arab springs will not alter the political, cultural, and demographic foundations of their historical emergence and that this promise will finally be fulfilled. This is a book worth reading.
