"I think today’s Middle East is dealing with the twin challenges of authoritarian retrenchment and the rivalry of Sunni and Shi’i powers focused on Saudi Arabia and Iran. ...Additionally, minority groups are hard pressed throughout the region, and will often be disproportionately affected by the outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic turns our attention away from some of the pressing needs of these minority communities, their numbers and influence may continue to dwindle."
— Dr. Paul Rowe, Professor of Political and International Studies
2021 marks ten years since the Arab Spring, a time when people across Arab states took to the streets in waves of growing protests against authoritarian regimes. In the events that followed, long-term autocratic governments in states such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overturned; while in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, ongoing threats to government stability remains. In the wake of these uprisings and the civil war that ensued, millions of people, including 6.6 million Syrians, fled their countries as refugees.
As the world witnessed the rise of the Islamic state, minority populations in the Middle East have been targeted, marginalized, and victimized.
Dr. Paul S. Rowe, Professor of Political and International Studies, has spent extended time in the Middle East, and he continues to study the politics of religious groups in developing countries and at the global level.
In 2019, Dr. Rowe edited The Routledge Handbook of Minorities in the Middle East, which features insights from international scholars on the status and prospects of minority populations in the Arab region.
Currently, as the world’s attention is captured by the pandemic’s developments, in the Middle East, minority populations continue to grapple with unique and pressing needs.
In the below interview, Dr. Rowe provides a perspective on challenges currently faced by Arab minorities.
Hi Dr. Rowe, What are the unique challenges of minority populations in the Middle East?
I’d say the chief challenges that minority populations face could be summed up as political Islam and authoritarianism. In Muslim societies, differences such as religion and ethnicity are difficult given the presumption that Islam is the final revealed religion that is supposed to elide all ethnic divides. And the Middle East seems uniquely resistant to liberal democratic norms that protect the rights of minorities. In the wake of the “Arab Spring” of 2011, Muslim majoritarianism in places like Syria, Iraq, and Egypt led to the rise of Islamic extremism and the violent suppression of dissent. The past decade has not been kind to minorities like the Yezidis, Assyrians, Copts, or Kurds. I dedicated the book to these and other victims of Da’esh, the so-called Islamic State. In some cases, minority groups deal with the legacies of genocide. In others, they are caught between loyalties to well-meaning foreign actors and their compatriots. The plurality of Middle Eastern minorities has yet to inspire true political pluralism.
What impact have minority populations had on their societies, and to what extent will they remain prominent actors in their respective settings?
I like to say that minority groups “punch above their weight” in these societies. Take, for example, Armenians, who live in diaspora communities in cities like Jerusalem, Beirut, or Damascus and have transcended their traumatic history to found prosperous and influential communities. Or consider the case of Palestinian Christians, who are possibly the most effective and credible voices of the Palestinian national movement – though you’ll rarely hear that said. Or Egyptian Copts, whose steadfast commitment to their faith is represented in vibrant and important monastic communities throughout their native land. More controversially, many minorities have fought armed conflicts to maintain a disproportionate influence over their societies, like Lebanese Christians, Syrian Alawites, or Yemeni Zaydis.
Could you draw some links between the issues covered in the book and the political landscape of 2020-21?
I think today’s Middle East is dealing with the twin challenges of authoritarian retrenchment and the rivalry of Sunni and Shi’i powers focused on Saudi Arabia and Iran. I’m sorry to say that minority groups often feel more secure under authoritarianism, and some might actually see these dictatorial regimes in places like Egypt or Syria as saviours of a sort. Sunni and Shi’i minorities have been a part of exacerbating some of the tensions in the region, from Iraqi popular militias who have attacked American forces in that country, to the continued threat of the Sunni extremists of Da’esh in Syria and Iraq, to the factions perpetuating the Yemeni civil war. Additionally, minority groups are hard pressed throughout the region, and will often be disproportionately affected by the outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic turns our attention away from some of the pressing needs of these minority communities, their numbers and influence may continue to dwindle.
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