Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Anglicans in Palestine/Israel and Christian-Muslim Relations

The Spring rolled eastward from Tunisia and toppled several autocratic dictatorial regimes, leaving in its wake turbulence and turmoil and in its aftermath what appears to be an increasingly vulnerable indigenous Christian population. Once again the Christians of the Middle East found themselves under scrutiny, caught between discredited regimes that had provided a modicum of security and stability in their lives and new orders struggling to get established with no compass to reveal future direction. As a consequence, insecurity, apprehension, and fear of an unpredictable future have intensified the emigration of Christians to Australasia, Canada, Europe, and the United States, further depleting the number of Christians in the Arab world.The emigration of Christians from the Arab world to the West is not a new phenomenon. It has its roots in the nineteenth century with the intrusion of foreign powers into the Ottoman Empire and the scramble by the various European nations to claim local Christian communities as proteges to be protected and/or manipulated. Recently it has been exacerbated by the Arab-Israeli wars, the rise of Islamist movements in Egypt, civil strife in Lebanon, the consequences of the invasion of Iraq, and the efforts to topple the Assad regime in Syria. The continued decline in the number of Christians in the Middle East has troubled local Christians, and has been noted by Western secular and religious leaders who have expressed concern over the fate of the vanishing Christians of the Middle East.1 The temptation is to blame their emigration on fear of Islamist ascendency or of real or potential persecution in the area. The devastation of the Iraqi Christian community,2 the violent sectarian incidents perpetrated against Copts in Egypt, and the emigration of displaced Palestinian Muslims to traditionally Christian majority towns in the Occupied Territories have all been blamed for the emigration of Christians. It is clear that the emigration has also been spurred by economic opportunities in diaspora. The drop in the relative number of Christians can also be ascribed to their lower fertility rates.This study will provide a brief overview of current ChristianMuslim relations in Palestine/Israel and of the efforts to establish dialogue between the two religious communities. It will focus on the Anglicans in the context of the general political, economic, and social conditions that have shaped the relationship between Christians and Muslims in the area. The area came under British rule after World War I and had active Anglican missionary programs which supervised the establishment of churches, schools, hospitals, and other social services.3Both Palestine and Israel have adopted some form of religious identity. The constitution of Palestine identifies Islam as the foundation or source of legislation, while Israel has no constitution but identifies itself as a Jewish state. Thus religion is coopted by the state and is manipulated through the religious institutions and leadership to buttress its hegemony over the population. This study will review a sampling of Muslim literature and attitudes toward Christian-Muslim relations in general, and will illustrate how interfaith dialogue initially perceived as a new means of subverting Islam is now favored as a means of defending and defining Islam as a religion of peace and one with a historical track record of pluralism and support for religious minorities. It will discuss the development of dialogue initiatives in Palestine/Israel as well as the Anglican contribution to interfaith activities.Anglican Christians in Palestine and Israel constitute a minority within the minority Christian communities of the Middle East and are a relatively new denomination among the historical established traditional Churches of the East. They are the product of the Anglican missionary project established in the area since the nineteenth century. Like other Middle Eastern Christians they feel a compelling need to repeatedly affirm their indigenous roots and loyalty to the land in the face of growing Muslim anger at Western support for Israel and interventionist policies in the internal affairs of the Middle Eastern states. …