A growing separation from the Arab world
in hostile circumstances.
The 20th century was a time in the Middle East
when nominally secular dictators espousing notions of
pan-Arabism -- the ideology of uniting the "Arab World" and
downplaying or crushing the different cultural aspects of the
region's innumerable sectarian groups -- reigned supreme.
However, as we continue past the first decade of
the 21st century, the regional picture is changing. In 2003, the
pan-Arabist dictator Saddam Hussein was deposed in Iraq. In 2005
occupying Syrian forces under another pan-Arabist, Bashar
al-Assad, were forced out of Lebanon. Now the Arab Spring is
demonstrating the Middle East's new Islamist future.
Besides the battles involving rifles and
sectarian militias, another fight has been an underlying feature
of the contemporary Middle East: Identity. This newly exposed
battle is especially prevalent among the region's declining
Christian population.
In his enlightening piece on Middle Eastern Christian identity,
my friend and colleague Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi concluded, "[T]he
degree of linguistic and cultural Arabization over time has
played more of a part in the formulation of identity among
Middle Eastern Christians than a simple desire to avoid
persecution at the hands of the Muslims majorities."
While this statement is quite valid in assessing
the situation of Middle Eastern Christians, the current
conditions of upheaval and increasing vacuum created by
pan-Arabism's failures has created a broad disenchantment with
the ideology.
With
rising sectarianism -- especially as some Islamist groups
publicly adopted the remnants of Arabism -- and a generally less
ideologically oppressive atmosphere, there has been a flowering
of non-Arab identity among the region's Christians.
Non-Arab identity for Christians existed
long-before the collapse of pan-Arabism. In fact, the "new"
Christian identities are hardly new. Many have their present-day
roots from the nationalist spurts that spread through Europe and
the Middle East in the late 19th century and continued to
develop into the 1940s. If anything, they were simply
overshadowed by the more dominant Arabism.
Pan-Syrian ideology was innately non-Arab and
primarily led by Christians. In 1943, with its Christian
majority, Lebanon was founded as a pluralistic state with an
"Arab face" but not with an intrinsic Arab identity.
Many Christians of the Levant, commonly referred
to as Syriac-Christians (usually due to their use of Syriac-Aramaic
as their liturgical language), exhibit some of the most marked
revitalizations of separate non-Arab identity.
These Christians include Catholic and Orthodox
sects and are some of the oldest Christian churches in
existence. The Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholics,
Maronite Catholics, Melkite Catholics and Orthodox, and Syriac
Catholics and Orthodox are all considered part of the "Syriac
nation." Syriac Christians also call a wide swath of territory
-- from northwestern Iran to the shores of the Mediterranean in
Lebanon -- home.
Syriac
Christian identities have a strong yet heavily debated linkage
with the past. Assyrian Christians often emphasize historical
connections to the Assyrian Empire. The more nascent Chaldean
identity looks to the Chaldean Empire (Chaldeanism) for its
historical depth. Syriac Catholics and Orthodox, Maronites, and
some Melkites often ascribe to Aramean identity (Arameanism). As
such, the Aramean peoples who inhabited the ancient Aramean
states are seen as their ethnic progenitors.
In many cases these identities have historically,
ethnically, and geographically overlap with one another. In
turn, this has caused friction between the different identity
groups. In an effort to make some of the identities more broadly
acceptable, there has been the adoption of more inclusive terms
such as: Assyro-Chaldean/Chaldo-Assyrian (by Assyrianists) or
the addition of the more unifying "Syriac-" as a prefix to
whichever church or ethnic identity is ascribed to.
As Christian self-identity developed over the
years, their identity movements also went hand-in-hand with a
desire for autonomy. Following the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs in Iraq, Syria, and
Turkey lobbied the League of Nations for independence. A few
years after the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990),
Christians of the country expounded their non-Arab roots. Some
concluded the so-called "Christian canton" run by the Lebanese
Forcesmilitia (now a political party), should either become
independent or maintain autonomy through an eventual federalist
framework. By 1979, Iraqi Christians established their own
political party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement(Zowaa). The
Zowaa fought for an autonomous, if not independent territory in
northern Iraq. Today, the party pushes for the autonomy of
Nineveh Plains as a safe-zone for Iraq's Christians.
For many of these Christians self-determination
is still desired. "If Israel could be revived why not Aram?"
asks David Dag, a Swedish based Aramean activist. Acknowledging
that current conditions might not allow for such a state, Dag
added, "not today, but maybe in the future, a few decades from
now."
Still, only a
decade ago, the basic struggle for identity was almost lost.
Hundreds of thousands of Syriac Christians left orfled their
homelands and now live in the West. Also, in many of these
countries Christian political presence was marginalized.
In Lebanon, the country's diverse Christian
population and history allowed it to become a prime base for
non-Arab ideology. This was an immediate threat for Syria, whose
regime gained legitimacy from pan-Arab ideology.
