Arab Christians

The missionaries established a network of health institutions and schools through which they contributed enormously towards cultural development and the improvement in the standard of living of Arab Christians in particular, who were offered access to modern education locally. An analysis of data regarding the rate of schooling in some provinces of the Arab area of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century shows that everywhere Christians had a much higher rate of schooling than Muslims and often, with the exception of Aleppo and Basra , than the Jews.

The experiences of the Arab Christians within the creation of the new national States were different. Here the Arab Christians played an important role both from a cultural and a political point of view. They were actually among the first exponents of the Nahd'a, the movement for cultural and political renewal which emerged in the Arab world in the nineteenth century and developed in the first half of this century. The aim of the Nahd'a was the political, social, and cultural renewal of Arab society and it considered.

A wholly unique case in the Middle East is that of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Here the situation of Arab Christians has been deeply affected by the political events leading to the founding of the State of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has lasted over forty years. Among Palestinians the common commitment to the national cause has acted as a strong cohesive force between Christians and Muslims. For the moment the radical Islamic movements seem to be more interested in blocking the peace process than in putting forward concrete proposals for the future institutional framework of the autonomous Palestinian territories.

In this light the present and future situation of Arab Christians depends on a whole range of factors. Most important of these are international political events and the cultural debate in Arab Muslim societies about how to reconcile Islam to modernity. There are many intellectuals, politicians, and legal specialists of Muslim culture and with different ideological positions, who are actively trying to promote a modernization of Arab Muslim culture and of Islam. They are also proposing a new consideration of Islamic sources which would allow the acceptance of liberal ideas of democracy and human rights within Islam.

However, while highly topical events arouse periodic interest among the general public, academic interest in Arab Christians is more constant. Apart from purely religious studies on the organization and liturgical life of the Middle Eastern Churches, studies of Arab Christians focus on three main fields. The first of these is history, particularly ancient history, beginning from the birth of the Christian communities in the Near and Middle East to their councils and schisms, but also the history of their relations with the West, beginning with their first contacts with the outside world, from the Capitulations to the twentieth century.

Studies in this field aim to identify the 'strategy' (this is the rather emphatic, exaggerated term for the study of the policies of minorities within their State or environment) and the position of Arab Christians in relation to the objectives they are trying to achieve and to the restrictions they inevitably come up against. Researchers often give appraisals of this strategy, voicing frequently contradictory opinions about the best chances of Christians' integration and participation, or alternatively, expressing pessimism about their future in the Muslim Arab world.

From a quick glance at the academic literature we can see the areas opened up by the study of the Arab Christian communities. The historical approach looks at their identity: who are they? how are they organized? what is their role? The study of their legal status examines the specific position of Arab Christians in society: are they active members of the whole of society or do they only act for their own society?