1 Time: And Time Again
A new millennium! The symbolism associated with the year 2000 was romanticized, globally, as a harbinger of a new era in human history. Given the diversity of global religious and non-religious beliefs, this is somewhat curious because the notion of a year â2000â is inherently linked to Christianity. Thus, this way of counting time re-inscribes in our daily lives, and our way of making sense of past, present, and future, the memory of the birth of the historical figure of Jesus of Nazarethâor God the Son as Christian faith holds. There are, to be sure, other ways of counting years, for example, in the Middle East. Thus, in Israel and in Arab/Muslim countries, alternative religious calendars are widely used. They refer to the creation of the world by God according to the Jewish tradition; and to Prophet Muhammadâs passage from Mecca to Medina where he established the first Muslim community (umma), remembered as al-hijra in Islam. In the Jewish and Muslim calendars , 1 January 2000 marked 23 Tevet 5760 and 24 Ramadan 1420.
Acknowledging sensitivities of post-religious publics, it has become popular to secularize the Christian way of counting, by keeping the Christian numbering of years, but substituting the religious marker Anno Domini (AD) with the neutral term âCommon Eraâ (CE). But this is not as new as one might think. Thus, in global modernity the way we count years was secularized even before âADâ became contested. Thus, the global standardization of time in the late nineteenth centuryâa process inherently linked to European imperialism (Osterhammel 2009: 118â121)âwas regulated on the basis of the Christian way of counting years. Fast forward, this explains why the symbolism of the year â2000â has become part of what can be termed âworld culture â (Boli and Thomas 1997), that is, cultural horizons in global modernity that are not exclusively linked to a specific world region. There is, thus, an inherent ambivalence to this date. It is of Christian origin but at the same time has become decoupled from Christianity. It is a global temporal horizon that is constantly actualized in different localities.
Hopes of a different and better futureâbased on more inclusion, more equality, and less sectarian strifeâexisted at the turn of the millennia also among Christians and non-Christians throughout the Middle East, that is, the region from where this religion originates. The Middle East is in a way the cradle of an early globalization movement that saw the global spread since antiquityâthrough spiritual, political, cultural, trade-related, and violent meansâof Christianity. It was in what we term today the âMiddle Eastâ where Christianity emerged as a minority religion in the all-powerful Roman Empire, rose to the status of a majority religion, in particular after the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the year 312, but over the course of time, after the Arab conquest, has become a minority religion in a region in which Islam in its manifold forms became the dominant belief. A word of caution is needed here. Thus, when speaking of Muslim-majority countries, two things need to be kept in mind. Firstly, Islam not unlike Christianity is internally divers and fragmented. The notion of an alleged Muslim blocâwhich often undergirds the parlance of âthe Muslim worldââis in some societal circles part of a (quite old) trans-regional and global discourse of Islamophobia that is sociologically and historically inaccurate (Halliday 1996). Thus, Islam is itself a fragmented religion, not only due to the schism between Sunni and Shiâa, but also due to the manifold forms of internal differentiation within these and other branches. Secondly, while Islam plays a central role in historical and contemporary political struggles and is often re-inscribed and institutionalized in the body politics of countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and others, states in the Middle East have, to varying degrees, strong secular underpinnings (Halliday 2011). It is true that in particular since the emergence of the Islamic reform movement in the nineteenth century, all these countries experience domestic struggles about the proper place of Islam in society. Yet, Middle Eastern states are first of all modern states in which political struggles mediate between different values such as nationalism, individualism, and religiosity. Differences with the West are a matter of graduation, not of general form.
The problem such nuanced perspectives on the Middle East and on Islam and Christianity in the region face is the often politicized and polarized way of talking about these topics. For example, the way in which the situation of Middle East Christianity is depicted in public discourse often lacks historical and sociological depth, now as during the nineteenth century when in the age of imperialism Western empires, states, and individuals ventured to âsaveâ Middle East Christianity. Thus, the setbacks of the âArab springââthat is, authoritarian counter-revolution and the temporary rise of the âIslamic state of Syria and Iraqâ (ISIS ), which persecuted Christians and others in the territories it conqueredâhave provided a floor for often alarmist media coverage on Middle Eastern Christianity. Some of these challenges such as the joint, non-sectarian protest by many Christians and Muslims against then-President Hosni Mubarak at Cairoâs Tahrir Square in February 2011 held the promise of more equality and inclusion of local Christianity in a predominantly Muslim Middle East. Yet, most analysts agreed that the major issue was the deterioration of collective and personal security of Middle Eastern Christians caused by authoritarianism, the cultural strength of political Islam, and by violence against Christians and others by ISIS and other jihadists but also everyday violence and forms of discrimination. These dynamics have triggered forced migration of Christians from the Middle East. However, and notwithstanding the serious hardships faced by these dynamics, the notion of an endgame of Middle East Christianity is exaggerated, and sociologically and historically uninformed.
A snapshot on the history of Middle East Christianity is an antidote to such presentist over-simplifications. Thus, a strained security situation and an ambivalent integration into local and national political systems are not new to local Christian communities. There is a long history of what could be termed âqualifiedâ citizenship status dating back to the independence of Arab nations and policies of the Ottoman Empire at earlier periods. Today, these dynamics are part of a broader struggle about the very definition of citizenship in global modernity that is affecting Christians in the Middle East but, given the dominance of authoritarian forms of government in the contemporary Middle East, is also of relevance to Muslim citizens. It is true that in the light of global interconnectedness, such forms of identity-based exclusion or discrimination justified with recourse to âcultureâ and tradition can quite easily be contested and scandalizedâbut not necessarily altered. This has already been evident in the nineteenth century, when world societal horizons shaped global/local encounters in the Middle East, too. Thus, during this era, under the larger context of European imperialism and colonialism, the idea of political rights of individuals and nations, and a general sense of empowerment and political activism mushroomed, thereby also transforming the self-understanding of Middle Eastern Christians as a collective group ...