Category: Analysis

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/07/18/Turkey-s-Syriac-community-and-the-threat-of-nationalization-.html

The ownership of around 50 churches, monasteries, and cemeteries that belonged to the Syriac Orthodox Church for more than 1,500 years was transferred to the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Dinayet), hence turned into public facilities.

The Syriac properties, which total hundreds of thousands of square meters, were annexed by the directorate following the decision by the government committee assigned the liquidation of assets whose ownership deeds expired. The decision sent shock waves across members of the Syriac community who started fearing that this could be the first step towards the extinction of their heritage.

Kuryakos Ergun, chairman of the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation, said that an appeal filed against the confiscation, which included the fifth-century monastery, was rejected and highlighted the danger of losing this monastery, one of the world’s oldest operational monasteries, and other Syriac houses of worship.

“Our churches and monasteries are what root Syriacs in these lands; our existence relies on them. They are our history and what sustains our culture,” he said. “While the country should be protecting this heritage, we instead see our culture is at risk.” Ergun added that the fifth-century Mor Meliki monastery is also among the confiscated properties. “This monastery is set beside a spring revered by pilgrims for its healing powers and was tended by two Syriac families.”

Both monasteries are located in the Tur Abdin region in southwest Turkey between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and which is known to be the historic center of Syriac heritage and the heart of its monastic history. The name of the region is Syriac for “mountain of the servants of God” and the region is home to more than 80 monasteries.

Robert Nicholson, the executive director of the Philos Project, which addresses the problems of Christians in the Middle East, attributed the confiscation of Syriac properties to new policies adopted by Erdogan’s government to control minorities in the restive southwest. “In the case of the Syriac Christians, Erdogan is using legal pretexts to seize and redistribute lands and churches that have been owned by Christians for over a millennium,” he said.

Nicholson noted that Christians were generally not persecuted by Turkish authorities and did not face discriminatory practices under Erdogan, yet he argued that this seems to be changing. “But Turkish politics are changing, and it’s still unclear how minority groups like the Syriacs will fare in the end.”

Turkish journalist Uygar Gültekin explained that the whole process started when the province of Mardin, the eastern part of which is located in Tur Abdin, was officially turned into a metropolitan municipality, which allowed the government to form a Transfer, Liquidation, and Redistribution Committee to look into the status of properties located in the province. The committee placed the properties at the disposal of the Treasury, which then transferred them to Religious Affairs.

The Treaty of Lausanne

Gültekin noted that the decision to confiscate the Syriac properties is in violation of the Treaty of Lausanne, which was also mentioned in the appeal filed by the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation. “According to Article 42/3 of the Lausanne Treaty the Turkish Government undertakes to grant full protection to the churches, synagogues, cemeteries, and other religious establishments of the above-mentioned minorities (non-Muslims).

All facilities and authorization will be granted to the pious foundations, and to the religious and charitable institutions of the said minorities at present existing in Turkey, and the Turkish Government will not refuse, for the formation of new religious and charitable institutions, any of the necessary facilities which are granted to other private institutions of that nature,” Gültekin wrote.

According to the same treaty, Gültekin added, the Turkish government is not to issue any laws or take any procedures that overrule this principle: “Evidently this erroneous ownership status is in explicit violation of the Lausanne Treaty which is the founding Treaty of the Republic of Turkey.”

Habib Efram, president of the Syriac League in Lebanon, said that news of confiscating Syriac properties in Turkey went unnoticed as was the case with other violations to which the Syriacs in the Middle East were subjected.

“The world has been watching since the massacres committed against our ancestors in 1915 and which were neither acknowledged nor punished,” he said in reference to the mass killings of Syriacs by the Ottoman Empire during World War One and which happened alongside the Armenian genocide. “In addition to what is happening in Turkey, our legacy is being eliminated in Nineveh and Palmyra,” he added.

According to minorities’ expert Suleiman Yusuf, transferring the ownership of the Syriac properties to the Directorate of Religious Affairs means that they will be treated as Islamic endowments, which makes the future of all activities taking place in them uncertain.

“Millions of people perform pilgrimage every year to the monasteries that are now confiscated. Dozens of nuns and monks also live in those monasteries in addition to students who learn there,” he wrote. “Now all those will be under the control of the Mufti which means they can be turned to mosques or Islamic centers any time.”

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/07/01/The-story-behind-US-deportations-and-the-Iraqi-Chaldean-population.html

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounded up 200 Iraqi Chaldeans -114 from the Detroit area and the rest from different parts of the country, for deportation. This step followed a deal in which Iraq accepted to receive deportees from the US in return for the removal of its name from Donald Trump’s travel ban imposed on seven Muslim-majority countries.

While this is also part of the crackdown enforced by the Trump administration on undocumented immigrants, the Chaldean issue is quite complicated since their deportation could be equivalent to sending them to their death and that is why pressure has been mounting to handle their case differently.

Gillian Christensen, representative of Homeland Security Department, explained that the decision to deport the Chaldeans is legal since all of them were convicted in different crimes in the past including “homicide, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, drug trafficking, robbery, sex assault, weapons violations” among others: “Each of these individuals received full and fair immigration proceedings, after which a federal immigration judge found them ineligible for any form of relief under US law and ordered them removed,” she said in a statement.

The ICE also issued a statement stressing that in the arrests its personnel have been doing their routine work of detecting “removable aliens” as the statement put it.

Targeted arrests

“All enforcement activities are conducted with the same level of professionalism and respect that ICE officers exhibit every day. The focus of these targeted enforcement operations is consistent with the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams on a daily basis,” said the statement.

Martin Manna, and Iraqi-American Christian and president of the Michigan-based Chaldean Community Foundation, admitted that the detainees do have criminal records, mostly for minor offences like shop lifting, the possession unregistered handguns, and marijuana use, all of which having been adjudicated.

In response to Christensen’s statement, Manna said that only 3-5 percentr of Chaldeans to whom a final order of removal applies have committed the crimes she mentioned.

Manna also clarified that they are not illegal immigrants as they might appear to be. “They all came to this country legally, they’re not undocumented, they came with their families, but they came as children,” he said.

“And for one reason or another the family didn’t apply for their citizenship and before they got their citizenship, they committed a crime unfortunately.”

Manna added that committing a crime robs them of the opportunity to apply for citizenship and makes them susceptible to a final order of removal even if the crime was committed decades ago, which is actually the case with many Chaldeans.

“People would say that if they’re criminals send them back. That’s the law, but there are also laws that protect people from being sent back to a county in which they will be harmed or persecuted,” Manna added, noting that the Congress unanimously agreed that attacks against Christians and other minorities in Iraq are classified as genocide.

“So how can we as a country send them back when we know they’re going to be put in harm’s way? Who are we to give them their death sentence?”

The Michigan branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a petition to stop the immediate deportation of arrested Chaldeans on the basis that they are going to be facing extreme dangers in their home countries.

“Not only is it immoral to send people to a country where they are likely to be violently persecuted, it expressly violates United States and international law and treaties,” said Kary Moss, the executive director of ACLU Michigan.

“We are hoping that the courts will recognize the extreme danger that deportation to Iraq would pose for these individuals. Our immigration policy shouldn’t amount to a death sentence for anyone.”

According to the complaint, detained Iraqis should be given the chance to explain to a judge why it is dangerous for them to go back to Iraq.

“[They] cannot be removed to Iraq without being afforded a process to determine whether, based on current conditions and circumstances, the danger they would face entitles them to protection from removal,” said the complaint.

The complaint did manage to stall the process and on June 22, a federal court issued an order to postpone the deportation for 14 days. The order is to expire on July 6.

John Moody, Fox News executive vice president and executive editor, argued that the deportation of Chaldeans is a misinterpretation of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants. “That’s probably not what Trump intended when he ordered a round-up of alien criminals,” he wrote.

Moody added that even though arrested Chaldeans committed crimes in the past, they should not be punished for them by deportation: “To be fair, these aren’t saints. All of the detainees have criminal records, though their lawyer, Clarence M. Dass, argues the majority of the convictions are for minor drug offenses and financial crimes dating back to the 1990s. Some have already served prison sentences for their crimes, and thus, paid their debt to society.”

Persecuted under Saddam

Chaldeans, Catholics who speak Aramaic, were initially persecuted under Saddam Hussein and Chaldean refugees started flooding to the United States in the wake of the first Gulf War.

The taking over of the province of Nineveh, particularly the city of Mosul which was home to the largest Christian community in Iraq, drove more Chaldean refugees to the United States.

According to the Chaldean Community Foundation, around 121,000 live in the Detroit metropolitan area while another 200,000 live in different parts of the United States.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/06/18/The-new-Azhar-law-and-the-battle-over-religious-authority-in-Egypt.html

Besides being the world’s leading institution on Sunni Islam, al-Azhar is the top religious authority in Egypt and the main reference on Islamic affairs.

This does not only apply to religious education taught through al-Azhar’s schools and university colleges, but also through religious edicts (fatwas) issued on contemporary day-to-day matters.

Despite the relative autonomy it enjoys, al-Azhar has for years been a representative of state Islam, that is the version of Islam that the state wants to promote as opposed to that promoted by extremist groups, and most recently the Muslim Brotherhood.

Therefore, al-Azhar has always been seen as a beacon of moderate Islam. However, the institution was never immune to criticism whether over the content of its curricula, the influence of ultra-orthodox scholars, or the status of the grand imam and this is how a new law came into being.

Radical changes

The new law, proposed by MP Mohamed Abu Hamed, introduces radical changes to the way al-Azhar operates especially as far as the grand imam is concerned. According to the law, the grand imam’s term would be limited to six years and can only be renewed for a second time and the grand imam is to be elected by members of two al-Azhar bodies—The Council of Senior Scholars and the Islamic Research Committee.

The law details the procedures to be taken to investigate the grand imam in case of negligence or misconduct. The law also changes the makeup of the Council of Senior Scholars and the Azhar Supreme Council so that their membership is not only limited to religious scholars and is extended to other secular professions as well as individuals appointed by the president.

In case the new law is approved, non-religious al-Azhar colleges will no longer be under its jurisdiction and will instead be affiliated to the Ministry of Higher Education like other universities. As for religious colleges, the law proposed a comprehensive curricular reform that would remove all texts that might be misinterpreted by fundamentalists as justification for violence. Abu Hamed initially collected around 250 signatures from MPs that supported the law, yet many have withdrawn their signatures ever since.

Opposition

The law was opposed by a sizable number of MPs. Mohamed Sharshar submitted a complaint to parliament speaker Ali Abel Aal in which he argued that the proposed law violated article 7 of the Egyptian constitution.

According to article 7, “Al-Azhar is an independent Islamic scientific institution, with exclusive competence over its own affairs” and “Al-Azhar’s Grand Sheikh is independent and may not be dismissed.” It also states that “the Law shall regulate the method of appointing the Grand Sheikh from amongst the members of Council of Senior Scholars.” According to Sharshar, the approval of the law will destabilize a religious institution that is not only Egyptian but also global.

“It has to be understood that al-Azhar and its grand imam are red lines,” he added. Sharshar collected more than 170 signatures from MPs who object to the law. MP Magdi Bayoumi said that he initially welcomed the law when he thought that it introduces reforms to the educational system at al-Azhar colleges. “But now this is a flagrant attack against the world’s symbol of religious tolerance and moderate Islam,” he said, adding that the House of Representatives should not interfere in the choice of the grand imam or the length of his term.

Supporters of the law mainly focused on the educational part and preferred to avoid broaching the grand imam controversy. MP Emad Gad said that education in Egypt will never progress as long as two separate systems exist, in reference to regular and Azhar colleges.

“You don’t find religious colleges anywhere in the world,” he said. “Plus, this system is against equality since scientific colleges in al-Azhar require much lower baccalaureate grades than regular ones which is both unfair and in violation of the constitution.”

Gad added that unifying curricula would allow for state supervision. “This way we can make sure that parts which would help in inciting violence or encouraging militant activities are removed.” Gamal Fahmi, head of the Culture and Media Committee at the National Human Rights Council agrees with Gad. “All curricula should be supervised by the Ministry of Higher Education.”

What is peculiar about al-Azhar law is not whether it will be approved, but rather whether it will be discussed in the first place. A request was submitted to parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal by disapproving MPs that the law be dismissed before being discussed. This request was faced with strong objection on the part of law’s initiator. “If 60 MPs approve, then a law can be discussed at the House of Representatives, so it will be discussed” said Abu Hamed. “I am not forcing any MP to approve the law, but I and my fellow MPs are practicing our constitutional right at having the law presented, discussed, and voted for.”

Abu Hamed dismissed Abdel Aal’s statement about the law being shelved despite admitting that such statement did encourage many MPs to withdraw their signatures.

“However, I still have a confirmed 85, which means that the law will still be discussed,” he said. “My purpose is to get the support of members of the committees of education and scientific research, legislative and constitutional affairs, and religious affairs.”

According to researchers Nathan Brown and Mariam Ghanem, there is more than meets the eye in the new draft law. For them, the law reflects a new strategy followed by the state to pass laws without directly being involved.

“Technically, the draft was the initiative of Muhammad Abu Hamed, a Sisi supporter in the Egyptian parliament,” they wrote. “In that sense, it reflects a new trend in Egyptian legislation, in which controversial and authoritarian proposals are presented as coming from parliament rather than the presidency and security bodies (the more likely real initiators).

This keeps the regime’s fingerprints off of legislation and also avoids much involvement by concerned ministries, the cabinet, and other state bodies.” Brown and Ghanem argue that the same strategy was followed when passing the laws that governed the appointment of senior judges and the operation of nongovernmental organizations.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/06/07/The-four-town-deal-and-Syria-s-new-sectarian-distribution.html

The deal known as “the four town agreement,” the result of negotiations between warring factions and their allies in Syria’s six-year conflict, can be seen as a humanitarian solution and a war crime, depending on which angel it is seen from. As it is obvious from its name, the deal involves four towns: Zabadani and Madaya in the south west and Kefraya and Foah in the north.

The first two, predominantly Sunni, are besieged by Assad and Hezbollah forces since June 2015 and the second two, predominantly Shiite, are besieged by Islamist opposition forces since March 2015. The two pairs of towns are to be evacuated in parallel so that Sunnis will move rebel-held regions in the north, particularly around Idlib, and Shiites will move to regime held regions in the south west, particularly around Damascus. So, while the deal can be seen as a way of saving more than 64,000 trapped civilians who face death and hunger every day, it is arguably an attempt by the Syrian regime to alter the sectarian makeup of the country.

Journalist Turki Mustafa argues that the agreement is a flagrant attempt at turning the Syrian revolution into an explicit sectarian war. According to Mustafa, the story of Kefraya and Foah goes back to the first year of the revolution when the Syrian regime created of them military strongholds controlled by militias from Lebanon and Iraq and managed by Iran. “Those militias played a major role in mobilizing the residents of the two towns to become regime loyalists and to engage in armed conflicts with surrounding Sunnis under the pretext that they are all terrorists and affiliated to ISIS,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, Iran ordered Hezbollah to besiege Zabadani and Madaya in order to put pressure on its Sunni population.” Turki argues that this is not the first time that the Shiite camp imposed a demographic, sectarian-based change through besieging and starving civilians followed by forced evacuations. “This happened before in Barada Valley, Western Qalamun, and Western Ghouta.”

Journalist Hussein Abdul Aziz argued that one of the direct results of the agreement is changing the sectarian identity of the Syrian-Lebanese border from Zabadani in the south to al-Qusayr to the north. “It is not a coincidence that residents if Kefraya and Foah will be reportedly transferred to al-Qusayr, which is across the border from the predominantly Shiite city of Hermel in Lebanon,” he wrote.

“Obviously, Iran and Hezbollah agreed on making sure the border is dominated by Shiites, which also weakens Lebanese Sunnis in the city of Akkar and who are considered a historical extension of their Syrian counterparts in Homs.” According to Abdul Aziz, it won’t matter which part of the border is inhabited by Syrian or Lebanese citizens, since the criteria will be mainly sectarian. “They just have to be Shiites so that Iran, Hezbollah, and the Syrian regime can make sure they are in control.”

Rights activist Alaa Asaad, who is a Madaya local, said that while he is aware of the drawbacks of the agreement, he does not see an alternative. “This is the only way to end this humanitarian disaster before more people die and this what Madaya residents believe,” he said. “People here are starved, diseases are spreading, and there’s no medicine.

The people of Zabadani share the same feelings and want this to end,” he said. In response to criticism of the agreement by several opposition factions in Madaya and Zabadani and the possibility of intervention to stop the implementation of the agreement, Asaad said that the consequences will be grave for all four towns. “We should not forget that Iranians link progress in Madaya and Zabadani with that in Kefraya and Foah.” Asaad was mainly referring to statement issued by the Syrian Higher Negotiations Committee, the National Coalition, and the Free Syrian Army and which condemned the agreement as submission to Iran’s plan at altering the sectarian structure of the country in accordance with its political interests.

Political analysis Khalil al-Mekdad said that the evacuation of the four cities serves a sectarian agenda, yet objected to criticism leveled against residents of the four cities because they agreed to leave. “There had no choice after Assad and his allies took control of liberated areas in Rif Dimashq and cut off supplies to several towns,” he wrote. For Mekdad, opposition factions such as the Syrian Higher Negotiations Committee and the National Coalition and armed groups from Rif Homs in the north to Deraa in the south are to be held accountable. “They all fell prey to international interventions that eventually enabled Assad and his allies to gain more ground.” Mekdad argued that Iran is the real beneficiary of the deal since it is in its best interest to evacuate the Shiites in Kefraya and Foah.

“Most residents in the two towns are trained militants that fight on Assad’s side so having them besieged is a huge loss for the Assad-Iran camp.” On the other hand, Mekdad added, the Sunni opposition lost an important bargaining chip when it gave up those two towns and the Assad camp might now start targeting it in Idlib. “The other problem is that it is still not known for sure where all the Shiite militias of Kefraya and Foah will move, but if they settle in the Barada Valley, for example, it will be a disaster and they will be impossible to uproot later.”

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/06/03/Understanding-anti-Christian-terrorism-and-the-sectarian-discourse-in-Egypt.html

While there was no need for more proof that terrorism in Egypt is taking a sharp sectarian turn, the latest attack that targeted a bus heading towards a monastery in the city of Minya in Upper Egypt and claimed the lives of 29 Copts enlightened many about a long-overlooked discourse that not only incites violence against Christians but also condones such attacks.

When ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, it dawned on many that their language is not very different from that used by a large number of extremists and at times, average citizens who adopt a similar ideology.

Eric Trager, researcher at Washington Institute for Near East Policy, holds the Muslim Brotherhood partially accountable not through taking part in the attacks, but through fueling hatred against Christians.

“To be sure, the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t directly responsible for these attacks. But the Brotherhood’s anti-Christian incitement contributes to an environment that legitimizes them,” he wrote. “Indeed, Brotherhood leaders routinely portray Christians not as victims of violence, but as beneficiaries of an Egyptian government that has brutally repressed the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.”

According to Trager, members of the Muslim Brotherhood always portray Christians in Egypt as the enemy who are out to undermine Islam, thus influencing a considerable number of Egyptians who are swayed by arguments that use religion and impacting their empathy for Christians when they become victims of terrorist attacks. Trager added that Islamists in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular always promote the idea that “Christians are primarily responsible for the July 2013 overthrow of Egypt’s first elected president, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, and for the severe repression of the Brotherhood that followed.”

Such discourse was particularly demonstrated in a statement posted by Muslim Brotherhood member Ahgmed al-Moghir right after the bus attack and in which he expressed his surprise at what he called “the Christian hysteria” that followed the terrorist operation and called Egyptian Christians “stupid” for thinking they’d get away with supporting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“Christians allied with Sisi hoping that he would not only eliminate Islamists but Islam itself and he is already doing this through giving more powers to the Egyptian church,” he wrote. “The regime also needs Christians in order to curry favor with Christian countries in the West.”

According to Moghir, Egyptian Christians have been committing a series of crimes such as engaging in missionary activities using “money, sex, or coercion,” deriding the Islamic faith, unlawfully building monasteries on state land, and training “Christian militias” to threaten Muslims. “Now, they are paying for their crimes as well as for their diabolic alliance with the Egyptian regime. If they don’t reconsider their position and make peace with Muslim, they will keep paying the price.”

Journalist Hanan Hammad argued that anti-Christian discourse is comprised of several components, all of which contribute to the crimes committed against Christians. “These include preachers who insult Christians in the media and people who believe them and the state that doesn’t do anything about it,” she wrote, adding that propagators of hate speech always enjoy some form of immunity that encourage more to emerge and eventually trigger physical violence.

“It is wrong to believe that only a minority of Egyptians subscribe to this discourse because now they are increasing. In fact, the majority of Egyptian Muslims adopt a supremacist attitude towards Christians and which is manifested in day-to-day matters whether in the street, the work-space, public transportation, government offices… etc.” Hammad also cited examples of several incidents that demonstrated discrimination against Christians in Egyptian schools. “Teachers deride Christians in front of students while other cut Christian girls’ hair and thugs harass Christian girls. Meanwhile, an entire village can be emptied of its Christians because of a dispute with a Muslim under the nose of security institutions.” Hammad dismissed all the ceremonial gestures that follow every attack and which aim to show that relations between Muslims and Christians are amicable. “We don’t care about seeing a sheikh hugging a priest and we don’t want to hear clichés about how tolerant Egyptians are. We better stop to see where we all went wrong because we are all responsible.”

Writer Fatma Naoot had a similar view as she argued that members of ISIS are not only the militants who took part in the terrorist attack, but rather everyone who promoted or subscribed to the ideology on which such attacks are based. “These include everyone who turns the people against Christians through religious edicts whether by official religious figures, mosque imams, or TV preachers, everyone who gloats on social media when a terrorist attack targets Christians, and everyone who remains silent while all this happens,” she wrote.

MP and representative of the Solidarity Committee at the House of Representatives Mohamed Abu Hamed submitted a draft law against hate crimes in response to the recent attacks against Christians and which he believes are a result of a sectarian discourse that portrayed Christians as infidels and second-class citizens.

According to article 6 of the law, “hate speech is punished by minimum jail sentence of 5 years and/ or minimum fine of LE 100,000,” while article 7 states that “inflaming sectarian sentiments among individuals or groups” is punishable by a minimum jail sentence of 6 months and/ or a minimum fine of LE 30,000. According to article 8, the jail sentence increases to minimum 7 years and the fine to minimum LE 100,000 if those offences are committed by religious figures or civil servants or when they take place in places of worship. In article 9, “accusing people of apostasy is punishable by life in jails and amounts to the death sentence if this accusation involves incitement to kill that actually leads to a murder.”

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/05/22/Are-Christians-in-Morocco-emerging-from-shadows-of-the-past-.html

It is still unclear when the so-called phenomenon of Moroccans converting to Christianity began to come out of the closet. There is no official statistic available on the number of Christian converts in Morocco even though the US State Department estimates the number to be between 2,000 and 6,000. More importantly, it is difficult to identify the reasons that drive them to convert in the first place.

Amid this hazy scenario, one thing seems certain: Moroccan Christians are emerging from the shadows of the past. They are beginning to demand their rights and criticize discriminatory practices.

The establishment of the National Coalition of Moroccan Christians was one of the major steps taken by the converts as they decided to stop practicing their faith in a clandestine manner as they had been doing for years.

Another first case of its kind was the coalition’s decision to officially address the National Human Rights Council. “Representatives of the coalition met with a delegation from the council and submitted a folder that contains a series of our demands,” said coalition spokesman Mustafa Susi. “Those included freedom of worship and the official recognition of churches in the country.”

The demands, Susi added, included the right to have their own cemeteries and to use Christian names for their children. “The group also asked for the right to decide if they want their children to take Islamic religion class in school.” Susi evaluated the meeting as “positive” as it constitutes the first step toward communication between Christian converts and the Moroccan government. The council, however, made no promises.

Moroccan Christians also launched a YouTube channel called Moroccan and Christian and which is described as “a channel that includes Moroccan Christians of all types as they explain their faith, answer questions about their patriotism, and refute misconceptions about them.”

Right to choose one’s faith

Human rights activist and minister of justice and liberties Mustafa Ramid said that people have the right to choose their faith and that this right is granted by Islam.

“We cannot prosecute those who choose to change their faith,” he said, addressing members of the Justice, Legislation, and Human Committee at the Moroccan parliament. “The problem is political rather than religious or legal because we are worried that we would turn into camps and that this will start dividing our society.”

Ramid also revealed his role in overturning a jail sentence against a Moroccan youth named Mohamed al-Baladi who was charged with proselytizing. “He was sentenced to two and half years under article 220 of the penal code but investigations proved that he was not guilty and I revealed that to the prosecution. He only converted to Christianity.”

According to article 220 of the Moroccan penal code, anyone who “undermines a Muslim’s faith” is sentenced to 6 months to 3 years in jail. This law, however, applies technically to people involved in missionary activities. The law in some cases applied to charity organizations that were accused of using their humanitarian work for proselytizing purpose, the children’s home called Village of Hope, closed in 2014, being the most prominent example.

Rights activist and member of the National Coalition of Moroccan Christians Zuheir al-Dukhali said that they have no political agenda as the state might fear and their existence is in no way a threat to national security.

“We only want the constitution to be modified in a way that explicitly grants all Moroccans the freedom to choose their faith,” he said. Dukali said that the state eyes Christians with suspicion especially after authorities arrested a group of Christians distributing books about Christianity in remote villages.

“Ever since, there has been an assumption that Christians serve a foreign agenda, but now the situation is different since no one is trying to convert anyone and we do not aim at spreading Christianity in Morocco.” Dukali also noted that if the state does not recognize the Christian minority, this will encourage extremists to target them. “This is not the case with the Jewish minority which is recognized by the state, which allows Jews to practice their faith freely.”

Opening up on the issue

Political analyst Mustafa al-Sehimi argued that Morocco is becoming more open on the issue of Christians and this was demonstrated in the meeting between representatives of National Coalition of Moroccan Christians and the National Human Rights Council.

“There is also a tendency toward distinguishing between missionary activities in which needy people are sometimes taken advantage of on one hand and an individual’s freedom to choose his or her faith on the other hand,” he said.

Sehimi, however, added that while the law only punishes proselytization, converts to Christianity are punished in other ways. “Converts lose their right to the custody and guardianship of their children and they can neither inherit nor bequeath their wealth to non-Muslims, which means they become civilly non-existent.”

Sehimi added that the first draft of the 2011 Moroccan constitution contained the phrase “religious freedom” which faced objections by the Islamist Justice and Development that threatened to vote against it. “In 2011, the atmosphere was tense enough and it was not a good idea to add more tension so we ended up with ‘the freedom of practicing religious rituals.’”

According to article 3 of the 2011 Moroccan constitution, “Islam is the religion of the state and the state grants the freedom of practicing religious rituals.”

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/05/07/Egypt-s-baptism-agreement-Solution-or-reason-for-more-debate-.html

During his two-day visit to Egypt, Catholic Pope Francis signed a baptism unification agreement with his Coptic Orthodox counterpart Pope Tawadros II. According to the agreement, both Catholic and Coptic Orthodox churches are to acknowledge each other’s baptisms so that people seeking to convert from one denomination to the other will not need to repeat the admission rite.

“Today we, Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros II, in order to please the heart of the Lord Jesus, as well as that of our sons and daughters in the faith, mutually declare that we, with one mind and heart, will seek sincerely not to repeat the baptism that has been administered in either of our Churches for any person who wishes to join the other,” said the statement issued by the two popes.

The agreement seemed like an adequate solution for existing tension between the two churches especially in the case of Catholics who want to join the Coptic Church and are required to go through a re-baptism, yet the heated debates that preceded the declaration among members of the Coptic community are hardly expected to subside.

According to Coptic activist Mina Thabet, the agreement is meant to solve problems that arise when people from different denominations want to get married. “It is difficult for a Catholic who wants to marry an Orthodox Copt to repeat the sacrament, and for a Catholic this means that his Christianity is not recognized by the other church, as if he is not a true Christian,” he said.

READ ALSO ANALYSIS: The religious significance of Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt

Thabet, who is also a researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and ‎Freedoms, said that the Coptic Church’s stance on Catholic baptism dates back to the Roman Empire, in reference to the AD 451 Council of Chalcedon that marked the separation of the two churches, when centuries of sectarian discrimination drove the Coptic community to be “more conservative, closed, and strict in its Orthodox values.”

According to Thabet, Pope Tawadros II apparently wanted to ease those restrictions, but was put under pressure by the Coptic community, which led to changing the wording of the agreement into “seek sincerely not to repeat baptism” so as not to make it mandatory for the Coptic Church to accept Catholics without re-baptism.

Significance

Journalist Maged Atef argued that the significance of the agreement and the controversy stirred by it are the result of two main factors: first, it is about baptism, which is the sacrament of admission into Christianity and second, it tackles a 1,500-year conflict between the two churches. “While the Catholic Church recognized the Orthodox Church in the 1960s, late Coptic Pope Shenouda of Egypt still insisted on not recognizing Catholicism,” he wrote.

“This changed with the advent of Pope Tawadros since he adopted a more reconciliatory stance with Catholics yet was faced with opposition by hardliners who supported Shenouda.”

Atef added that it was difficult for Copts to accept after all those years that they and Catholics can stand on an equal footing. “Now the Coptic church is divided into two camps. The hardliners believe that what Tawadros did is a disaster and they are the ones who leaked information about the agreement before it was signed so they can incite the community against him. On the other hand, the reformists believe he embarked on a historic step that is in line with the teachings of Christ,” Atef explained.

However, Atef clarified that in all cases hardliners are incapable of entering into a confrontation with Tawadros since he enjoys a great deal of support inside the church and because the political climate in Egypt cannot take more instability.

Needs approval

Mena Assad, lecturer of theology at the Coptic Orthodox Church, said that Pope Tawadros discussed the unification of baptism with the Catholic Church at the Holy Synod in 2014 and the majority of the members rejected it. “This cannot just be reversed through a visit by the Catholic pope to Cairo. It is an issue that has to be approved by the relevant committees at the Holy Synod and cannot be dealt with unilaterally by the pope,” he said.

Assad added that the Holy Synod also issued a decree in the 1990s stating that Catholics who want to join the Coptic Orthodox Church have to be re-baptized. “The reason is simply because the bases of faith for both churches are different and baptism needs to be based on faith. Unless beliefs are unified, baptism cannot.”

Coptic activist and writer Kamal Zakher said that the agreement is more symbolic than practical.

“The agreement will not unify baptism right away. It is not as simple as that, yet it is a good step towards rapprochement between the two churches,” he said.

“True, it was a shock for Orthodox hardliners, but it opens the door for discussion on issues that were treated as givens before and for letting go of the idea that one sect would consider itself the only right party.”

It is noteworthy that the rite of baptism itself is not the same in the Catholic and Coptic churches. In the Catholic Church, holy water is sprinkled over the person’s head, while in the Coptic Orthodox Church, the person is totally immersed in holy water.

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On March 18, Pope Francis’s visit to Egypt was officially announced in what was seen as a sign of improving Muslim Catholic relations, hence a remarkable break from Benedict XVI’s stance. Shortly after the announcement, the Pope tweeted, “I invite you not to build walls but bridges, to conquer evil with good, offence with forgiveness, to live in peace with everyone.”

While the timing of the visit could not have been more significant with the region being relentlessly torn by sectarian conflicts and constantly suffering the damages incurred by religious extremism, such significance was taken to a different level with the bombings that targeted two Egyptian churches on Palm Sunday.

Contrary to expectations and amid security concerns, the visit was announced to be going ahead as scheduled. In fact, the Pope seems more determined to carry out his mission as a “messenger of peace” as he called himself when he addressed Egyptians in a videotaped speech in which he hoped that his visit would be “an embrace of consolation and of encouragement to all Christians in the Middle East.”

Father Douglas May, a Catholic priest who worked in Egypt for the past 20 years, said that the Pope’s visit aims at expressing solidarity with all Christian minorities in the Middle East and who are targeted by religious extremists. This, he added, is similarly applied to Egyptian Christians who also complain about lack of a powerful religious discourse against extremism.

“Many Christians feel the voice from al-Azhar is not strong enough against all this fanaticism, and it may even be affirming it,” he said, adding that this impression might change when they see the pope shaking hands with al-Azhar’s grand imam and other religious dignitaries. May also argued that the Pope’s visit will solve the problem of the “low level of ecumenical spirit,” as he put it, among priests of different Christian denominations in Egypt, in reference to Copts, Catholics, and Protestants.

“But when Pope Francis goes to Cairo April 28-29 to embrace Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, Christians will see that we are all one family… we are all related together by Jesus,” he said, adding that Christian lay people in Egypt are more aware of this spirit of solidarity than the clergy.

Anthony Cirelli, associate director of the Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, affiliated to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that Pope Francis’s visit would hopefully shed light on a view of Islam other than that constantly propagated by the media, especially the support Muslims in Egypt offer to Christians at times of crises such as church bombings. Middle Eastern affairs expert Augustus Richard Norton agreed.

“Given the pope’s stature and position, the major contribution he might make is distinguishing the violent terrorism of groups like the ISIS from mainstream Islam,” he said. “That’s a very important message at a time when some governments, notably our present US government, don’t seem to mind blurring the lines between the extremists and the mainstream.”

According to journalist Christopher Lamb, it is exactly this kind of discourse that earned Pope Francis a great deal of respect in the Muslim world and distinguished him from his predecessor. “When he is in Cairo, the Latin American pontiff will be keen to help Islam in any way he can turn from the ideology which inspires terrorists: he will call on all religions to condemn any violence committed in the name of God,” he wrote.

“His past denouncement of terrorist atrocities as separate from the faith of Islam has won him respect across the Muslim world as a religious leader worth listening to.”

According to former Egyptian diplomat Belal al-Masry, both the Roman Catholic Church and the Christians of the Middle East will benefit from Pope Francis’s visit to Egypt. First, the relative decline of the role of the church in Europe led the Vatican to focus more on Christians in other parts of the world.

“That is why the pope now feels responsible for Christians in the Middle East especially that they are now targeted in many countries,” he wrote, adding that Egypt was the most suitable country to start such an initiative from since it is home to the largest and most ancient Christian community in the region.

“Despite fundamental differences between the Coptic and Catholic churches, their alliance is of extreme importance for the Vatican since it is the gateway to the Christian communities of the Middle East.” Second, Christians in the Middle East feel that through being supported by a body as influential as the Vatican, they can get more protection from persecution.

“Christians of the Middle East are aware that the Vatican can champion their cause before the International Community since it has more clout than local churches which, after all, are part of a given state thus not as independent.”

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The relationship between Sufis and the Egyptian government has over the years been generally smooth and this was mainly due to the fact that there was hardly any conflict of interest between the two parties and because Sufis by definition are usually not involved in the political scene.

In fact, Sufis were in many cases beneficial for the Egyptian state, especially as they offered oneof the many peaceful versions of Islam that countered extremism that militants have practiced under the banner of Islam. That is why the recent tension seems quite surprising and opens the door for speculations whether the decades-long harmony is being disrupted.

It all started with the commemoration of the birth of Sayyeda (Lady) Nafissa, great granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad and venerated Islamic scholar and teacher, when the state imposed fees on the ceremony that fell this year on March 8. Abdel Hadi al-Qasabi, president of the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, explained that modest fees had been initially paid by the council, but this year additional fees were imposed on all citizens attending the ceremony.

“This means burdening around 15 million people who come from all over the country to take part in the ceremony and to express their love for Sayyeda Nafisa and seek her blessings,” he said. “Those are the average Egyptians whose moderation and devotion we should promote, but instead we are pushing them away.” Qasabi said the additional fees were not collected against receipts and the committees that collected them had no legal standing. “In addition, the fees themselves violate law number 118 for the regulation of Sufi orders and I suspect there is corruption involved here.” Qasabi, who is also a member of the House of Representatives and head of its Solidarity Committee, said he will demand summoning the prime minister, the minister of local development, and the head of the municipal council for questioning: “They have to explain to the parliament why this is happening and why such pressure is being put on the people.”

Moustafa Zayed, founder of the Coalition for the Youths of Sufi Orders, said that the municipality rents plots of land to Sufi orders so that they can erect the tents in which the ceremony is held, but this year the prices have remarkably risen. “This led many Sufi orders to stay away from main streets, which are now extremely expensive, and to rent, instead, plots of land in the cemeteries surrounding the Sayyeda Nafissa Mausoleum,” he said. Zayed added that Sufi ceremonies have lately started to witness the appearance of a number of politicians, journalists, and celebrities. “I believe that some people want to take advantage of the ceremony to advance certain agendas, but we will not allow this,” he said, not explaining, though, whether this is related to the rising prices.

Sufis did not take kindly to such statements coming from a senior official at al-Azhar. Sufi scholar Qandil Abdel Hadi said that Shouman misrepresents al-Azhar and that is why he preferred to address the grand imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. “I am sure that the grand imam is aware of the significance of patrons in Islam and that he will never accept that they are insulted in this manner, especially by an official from an institution that represents Islam across the world,” he said, adding that not anyone is considered a patron as Shouman made it seem. “This is only done after a series of signs that affirm a particular person has the characteristics of a patron and only then the remains are exhumed.”

The General Sufi Coalition issued a statement condemning the “insults” Shouman leveled against Sufism and the patrons and their supporters. “A senior official like Shouman should use scholarly arguments if he wants to prove a specific point, but what he did is not different from what is done by extremist groups that only hurl insults and accusations,” said the statement. According to the statement, the existence of patrons is an integral part of Sunni Islam and cannot be questioned. “Patrons did exist and they had special spiritual abilities.” The statement concluded with not accepting an apology from Shouman, if he offers any. “We count on God to do the patrons justice.”

Political analyst Ammar Ali Hassan traces the relationship between the Egyptian state and Sufis since 1952 and notes that while Sufi orders have not been technically involved in politics, they always played a major political role that was well utilized by successive regimes. “Unlike extremist Islamist groups, Sufis do not accuse the regime of apostasy and do not call for armed struggle against it, thus not presenting the regime as an enemy of Islam and not inciting people against it,” he wrote. “On the other hand, the regime offers Sufis protection from extremist groups that threaten to burn their shrines and attack their ceremonies.”

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The Arabic word for “clergy” literally translates into “men of religion.” But this notion seems to be changing as the Arab world has just got its first female pastor.

Rola Sleiman is now the Reverend of the Presbyterian Church in Tripoli, Lebanon, thus breaking a long-standing tradition that gave preference to men in priesthood and becoming the first woman to assume such position in both the Arab region and the Middle East.

The decree to appoint Sleiman, who holds a degree from the Beirut-based Near East School of Theology, was issued by the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon on February 26, 2017 following her request for appointment. Sleiman’s ordination gave rise to speculations over setting a precedent that might transform Christian practice in the region and maybe extend beyond it.

According to Beirut-based analyst Halim Shebaya, Sleiman’s ordination might not seem significant when compared to other demands related to the empowerment of women since her job is solely spiritual, yet it is extremely progressive on a symbolic level.

“Her ordination is doubly significant in a context where women are assumed to be of an inferior status to men when it comes to certain functions: theologically (priesthood reserved to men only), politically (vast underrepresentation of women in local and national politics), and legally (discrimination in law),” he wrote.

Shebaya added that the ordination of a woman means that the church is finally not contradicting itself as it did it before as one of its most venerated figures is a woman—Virgin Mary—then no women are entrusted with church affairs. He also said that Sleiman’s example is religious, yet might still send a powerful message across the region about the role of women: “And who would disagree that this message of equality and non-discrimination is exactly what Lebanon and the Arab world needs, regardless whether it comes in religious or non-religious language.”

Father George Massouh, director of the Center for Christian and Muslim Studies at the University of Balamand, said that while Rola Sleiman is the first female pastor in the Arab world, the ordination of female pastors in protestant churches in different parts of the world is not unusual.

“While Catholic and Orthodox churches do not have female pastors, they are well aware that protestant churches do that so I don’t see why they can be surprised,” he wrote, in reference to reports that the two churches in Lebanon and elsewhere were taken aback by Sleiman’s appointment. “Pope Tawadros of Egypt received the primate of the Lutheran Church of Sweden [Antje Jackelén], who is a woman, and Pope Francis met with the same woman during his trip to Sweden,” he wrote. It is noteworthy that when asked following his visit to Sweden about the possibility of ordaining female pastors at the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said that the ban is final. Massouh explains the detractors of women’s ordination mainly cite one of two reasons.

“The first reason is based on the fact the Jesus Christ and his apsotles were male, which means that priesthood should be reserved for men. The second reason is not religious, but is rather based in social traditions and biological considerations,” he said. In response to how this contradicts with Virgin Mary’s status, Massouh said that many Christians believe that despite this status she was never made priest or the like, which means priesthood is not for women. “The discourse of Eastern Christianity will never progress as long as these ideas are still treated as givens.”

Before her ordination, Sleiman was performing all the duties of a pastor with the exception baptism and communion: “My duties focused on Sunday sermons and pastoral care visits until the 24-member Synod decided it was time to vote for ordaining me and I got 23 votes,” she said in an interview.

“This decision was supported by members of the church.” Sleiman noted that members of her church are a minority among Christians in Lebanon. “Protestants are 10,000 out of Lebanon’s 4 million and are mainly concentrated in the Mount Lebanon Governorate,” she explained. “The first protestant presence in Lebanon started with the Quakers in 1873 then the number of churches increased to reach 24.”

Sleiman said that people in her hometown seem skeptical about her ability to carry out the duties of a pastor. “I can see this in the way they treat and look at me because this is new to them,” she said. “This is despite the fact that when I was performing the duties of a pastor informally they were okay with it.” Sleiman said she believed that because Tripoli is her hometown and all members of the church already know her, they will gradually get used to it. “Women in the West proved that they can be as good as men in priesthood, but in the Arab world only traditions are the main barrier that can be overcome by one first precedent like this and there is always a first time.”