Lebanese scholar: Mideast Christians’ fears are not ‘hallucinatory’

CWN - November 08, 2012

Habib Malik, a professor at the Lebanese American University, told Vatican Radio that the “real fears” of Middle East Christians following the Arab Spring “are not hallucinatory or born of a fertile imagination.”

Malik, who said that the Vatican has a “deep understanding of the delicate situation of the Middle Eastern Christians,” is the son of Charles Malik (1906-87), an Eastern Orthodox Christian who helped draft the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

“The euphoria around the so-called Arab Spring is beginning to wear thin with time,” said Malik. “The expectations that these changes, the collapse of these oppressive regimes would usher in a new era of democracy, freedom, and human rights has unfortunately and sadly been exaggerated.”

“Instead, we are facing the real possibility of chaos, of replacements for these regimes that might turn out to be worse than the regimes themselves, especially (where) minorities and in part, native Christian communities are concerned,” he added. “If the result of the Arab Spring is that Salafism and Jihadism are going to proliferate and anchor themselves in country after country, then we are seriously facing something very disturbing.”

Additional sources for this story
Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:

Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!

Progress toward our June expenses ($13,107 to go):
$30,000.00 $16,892.93
44% 56%
Sound Off! CatholicCulture.org supporters weigh in.

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!

There are no comments yet for this item.

Catholic World News Email Newsletter
Donate to Support this Site: Your contribution will be put to good work.
Tour the CatholicCulture.org Site
Shop Amazon to Raise Money for Catholic Culture

Recent Catholic Commentary

Thankfully, electing a pope is not like electing a president. 1 hours ago
Excellent critique of bias in New York Times abortion coverage 2 hours ago
Pope Francis the Frank June 18
“Illegals” are not “Immorals”: A Persistent Immigration Fallacy June 18
News coverage of the Vatican: the blind leading the blind June 18

Top Catholic News

Most Important Stories of the Last 30 Days
Vatican document demands governments protect refugees CWN - June 6
Pope acknowledges 'gay lobby' influence in Vatican CWN - June 11
Pope confirms he is completing encyclical on faith begun by Benedict XVI CWN - June 13