Lebanese scholar: Mideast Christians’ fears are not ‘hallucinatory’
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.”
For all current news, visit our News home page.
Further information:
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
