Monday 2 April 2018

Muslims and Christians in Bulgaria, between East and West.


Muslims and Christians in Bulgaria, between East and West.

On the 3rd of March, Bulgarians celebrate the 140th anniversary of the end of the Turkish rule. However, little is known about the relationship between Muslims and Christians in today's Bulgaria, which has the proportionally highest number of Muslims in the European Union. Tertio went to Plovdiv and the southwestern Rhodope Mountains to investigate.


Plovdiv - called Filibe by the Turkish rulers - was an important economic center and a very prosperous city in the Ottoman Empire, together with Constantinople, Edirne and Thessaloniki. The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in 1878 led to a massive emigration of Muslims, who felt that they were being targeted by reprisals. After 1878, the total population of the once flourishing Plovdiv fell from 125,000 to less than 30,000.

Today Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria with about 340,000 inhabitants. Although the rich Islamic past is not mentioned in the tourist campaigns for Plovdiv, which will be one of the two "European Capitals of Culture" in 2019 - together with the Italian Matera, the traces of the Ottoman heyday are still visible, especially in the beautiful houses built by the prosperous citizens of Filibe.


“Bulgarian Muslims have quite a lot in common with Christians.”                                         


"Today Bulgaria counts 1200 mosques," Taner Beli tells me. He is the Regional Mufti of Plovdiv and the surrounding region, including the Rhodope mountains. "Plovdiv has only two remaining operating mosques, the Imaret-mosque and the Hüdavendigar mosque, where some 1,000 Muslims gather on Friday to pray.” By way of comparison, in 1650 there were 53 mosques in the city.

“Islamophobic actions are rare in Plovdiv, and Muslims and Christians in general have a good understanding”, Taner Beli tells me. Beli describes how Christians, Jews and Muslims meet every year in Plovdiv to commemorate an attack on the Hüdavendigar Mosque (the mosque is also called Dzhumaya   or “Friday Mosque” in Bulgarian), one of Plovdiv's landmarks, in 2014. According to the authorities and Beli, the mosque was beleaguered by a gang of “hooligans”; the press  described the attackers as a group of hundred nationalists and neo-Nazis.

Professor Maria Schnitter of the Department of Medieval Studies, Anthropology and Theology at the University of Plovdiv, agrees that the relations between Christians and Muslims in Bulgaria can also generally be described as 'good'. This is because, according to her, Bulgaria has its own form of Islam, which is very similar to (orthodox) Christianity.

 
Millets and Pomaks

Krassimir Asenov, who has written a doctorate about the Bulgarian Muslims, states that those can be divided into two categories, on the one hand, the Turkish-speaking Muslims, called Millets, and the Bulgarian-speaking Pomaks, who mainly live in the Rhodope Mountains.

Asenov argues that both groups have beliefs and folkloric practices that do not correspond with Orthodox Islam. According to Prof. Schnitter, the same applies to the majority of Bulgarian orthodox -Christians. This can be explained by the centuries-long coexistence of Christians and Muslims, which has led to a mixture and even the emergence of similar rituals, such as the superstitious rituals around spirits. "Bulgarian Muslims and Christians are much closer than they think," says Professor Schnitter.

Dr. Asenov also states that the vast majority of Muslims in Bulgaria are heterodox. "Most of them don't know what it means to be a true Muslim. They do not know the orthodox rules of Islam," says Asenov.


Underestimation

"According to the authorities - who carried out a census in 2011 - there would be 577,139 Muslims in Bulgaria, which would come down to 7.8% of the population," says Schnitter. "But according to most experts, these figures are not a correct reflection of the actual number of Muslims. According to a study carried out in 2014, the percentage of Muslims would be as high as 15%, which would mean that Bulgaria proportionally has the highest number if Muslims in the European Union.”

The reasons for this serious underestimation are multifaceted. "First of all, numerous Muslims have not been included in the census because they live outside the system and have no legal address," says Schnitter. This is particularly true for many Millets, who are about 600,000 in Bulgaria. Furthermore, religious identity is a relatively new phenomenon in post-communist Bulgaria, and the census asked for an ethical identity and not for a religious identity.  One last reason is the fact that the government prefers to lump Muslims together with the numerous Roma in Bulgaria. But only part of the approximately one million Roma is Muslim.

The fact that the government prefers to talk about gypsies rather than Muslims is due to the fact that the Millets have very close ties with Turkey, which the government perceives as a threat. This is in contrast to the Muslims living in the Rhodope Mountains, called Pomaks, who have Bulgarian as their mother tongue and are considered to be “native” Bulgarian Muslims, who are an integral part of the population, together with the Christians, and whose mosques are often built next to a church.

Asenov is one of the two municipal civil servants - out of a total of 1000 civil servants - with a Millet background in the whole aggregation of Plovdiv. As vice mayor of Plovdiv-North, he tries to persuade Millet parents to send their children to school and to resist the influence of the "preachers", whether they come from Turkey, Saudi Arabia or represent an Evangelist movement.

The influence of the outside world is increasing, not only on the Millets, but also on the Pomaks in the villages in the Rhodope Mountains. In the villages the typical colorful embroidered headscarves - by which one can recognize a woman's village of origin - gradually make way for black headscarves.

 
Sunnites

"Turkey's grip is very large", confirms Krassimir Asenov. Imams and Muftis such as Taner Beli are trained in Turkey. Beli, the Regional Mufti of Plovdiv and the region, is well-educated and well-spoken, either in Turkish or Bulgarian. According to Asenov however, Beli only represent the Sunni Muslims (there is also a significant portion of Shi’a Muslims in Bulgaria, who have lived together for centuries with the orthodox-Christians) and Beli receives a great deal of support from (Sunni) Turkey. When I ask Beli where the funds for his organization come from and how the representatives are elected, he does not answer me.

Many of the imams led Friday prayers in Turkish. This is often the only language the Millets speak. This means that a significant proportion of Muslims in Plovdiv live in complete isolation from the Bulgarians and have a parallel society and economy. They trade in goods purchased in Turkey, which they then resell to the Millet community. In this way, this community escapes any form of state control and the tax system.

During his field study at the Plovdiv Millets, Asenov was often confronted with the fact that these Turkish-speaking muslims refuse to learn Bulgarian. This means that their children will have major problems at school - if they go to school at all - they will be poorly educated and will not be able to find a decent job later on.

Another phenomenon in Bulgaria (as is the case in other Balkan countries) is the “Muftiism”. For each hierarchical level of the Islamic representatives there is an official title, from the preacher (vaiz called in Bulgarian) and the shoora (a council of elected Muslims), to the Regional Mufti and the Chief Mufti in Sofia.


“Hoping for an economic boost through tourism from other European countries”

 
Cautious rapprochement

However, there are signs of a cautious rapprochement between Bulgaria and Turkey. Turkey is currently restoring numerous Bulgarian churches, and a number of mosques are being restored to their former glory, including in Razgrad near the Turkish-Bulgarian border in the province of Edirne. But rather than looking to the East, Bulgaria is looking to the West and hopes - as one of the poorest countries in Europe - for an economic boost through tourism from the other EU countries, particularly when Plovdiv becomes one of Europe's capitals of culture next year.

 

 

 

 

 


 
 




 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 8 January 2018

Arab Christians in the Holy Land


Followers of the Messiah

The Arab Christians - the Christians are named in Arabic 'Messahi' or' followers of the Messiah' (derived from the Arabic word Masih or Messiah) are Arabic speaking Christians or descendants of Arabic speaking Christians, who are estimated to be around fifteen to twenty-five million worldwide. A significant proportion of Arab Christians are under severe pressure, including in countries such as Syria, home country of some 700.000 Arab Christians, and Iraq, which has one of the world's oldest continuously living Christian communities.

Israel also has a significant group of Arab Christians (estimated 170.000 people), spread throughout the country. These communities, which identify themselves as Arabic or Palestinian, claim that they go back to the beginning of Christianity.

But the Arab-Christian communities also suffer in the Holy Land, not least because of their less-than- enviable position in Israeli society. Tertio went on a visit to the Arab-Christian village of Fassouta, and found out why this village on the Israeli-Lebanese border wants to put itself on the international tourist map.


Welcome to Fassouta.        

Fassouta has no exit. Once you have entered the village, you have to leave it on the same road ", says Edgar Dakwar, Mayor of Fassouta.


The village of Fassouta is located on the flank of Mount Meron, in the north of Israel, about an hour and a half drive from Nazareth.

This Christian village in Upper Galilea is hardly known, despite the fact that it has great potential, especially for Christian pilgrims who visit Christian sites in Israel.

With about three thousand inhabitants, Fassouta is the largest Christian village in Israel. Next to Fassouta is the almost equally large Christian neighboring village Ma' iliya. Both villages are the only two villages in Israel with an exclusively Christian population. The Arabic-speaking inhabitants adhere to an oriental faith, more precisely the Greek Catholic or Melkite movement, which is said to be one of the oldest movements in Christianity. The Melkites trace their origins back to the Christian community of Antiochia, dating from the first century after Christ, when Christianity was introduced by Saint Paul.

The patron saint of the village is Mar-Elias (mar is Armenian for Saint). On the central square of Fassouta is a large statue of St Elias. The inhabitants believe that the Saint protected them in 2006 when missiles from Lebanon landed in the village, and when as by miracle nobody was injured.

Another famous tradition of Fassouta is the annual Christmas market, which attracts thousands of visitors from the surrounding villages, Christians, Jews and Muslims alike.


Re-branding

As part of the re-branding of Fassouta and the surrounding villages of Ma' iliya and Ilabun as tourist destinations, I visit the region as part of a group of fifty journalists from more than 20 different countries. A group of Israeli journalists want to show us as many facets of the country as possible, including less well-known places and sensitive issues.

At the entrance of Fassouta we are greeted by a more than life-size Jesus statue, and by the fanfare of the village that accompanies us to the church in the center of Fassouta. The fanfare, which consists of up to thirty members, is composed of members of the Catholic Scouts of Fassouta. It is just around sunset, which makes our arrival in Fassouta very atmospheric.

After a tour of the village and a meal prepared by local women, we will meet the priest and mayor and spend the night with the local people. This was the idea of Stella Ashkar, a journalist who lives with her husband and two sons in Fassouta.

Youngsters

The guide who leads us through the village is thirty year old Hatim. He returned to live in his hometown only two months ago, after spending eight years in London, where he worked for Vidal Sassoon. Through Facebook he got back into contact with a girl he knew from Fassouta, and after many chats and Skype conversations he decided to give up his job in London and fulfill his family's wish: to marry an Arab-Christian girl from the village. Two months after his return, Hatim is full of doubts about his future and whether he has made the right decision. Because he speaks English, he is now trying to make a living as a guide. Unfortunately, he hardly has anything to say about the history of the village, and he is not prepared for the arrival of fifty international journalists/tourists.

Tourists in Fassouta are rather an unusual appearance. The inhabitants hope to attract tourists from Europe, the United States and the rest of the world, but have as an obstacle the fact that they - with a few rare exceptions only speak Arabic. There are also no hotels or restaurants.  According to Mayor Edgar Dakwar, the city council has been making efforts for years to put Fassouta on the tourist map, and to attract money from both government and private investors, but the process of turning Fassouta into a tourist destination has been difficult.


Tourism

The question is whether the village is really ready for tourists. The unfavorable location just next to the Lebanese border does not make attracting visitors any easier, although the village has an interesting history.

The oldest part of Fassouta dates from 1881 when the village had about two hundred inhabitants. In 1517, Fassouta was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. It had Greek-Catholic and Muslim inhabitants -the latter, however, were almost all driven out of the village or fled in 1948 - while most Christians remained. As a result, the village now has an exclusively Christian population.

We visit the Mar-Elias Church. This year it is the 110th anniversary of the church. Although the exterior of the church gives a rather modern impression, the interior oozes with beautiful icons. The icons occupy a central place in the oriental or Byzantine rite, from the veneration for the image of God and the saints. Christ, God's son, may be depicted in the Eastern tradition.


Exodus

At the end of our guided tour we end up in an Irish pub, the Grandfather House, an initiative of a returning villager, Jery Dakwar. The racks are filled with up to fifty different types of spirits, and we are treated to beer, including Hoegaarden and Leffe. The muscular and tatooed owner of the pub lived for two years in Belgium and the Netherlands, where he collaborated on theatre plays and musicals.

Mayor Edgar Dakwar declares himself satisfied with the return of young people from abroad to Fassouta. Our conversation takes place in a mixture of Arabic and English. According to Edgar Dakwar, Fassouta's main problem is the lack of employment and the resulting exodus of young people from the village. Most young people do not return after their studies outside Fassouta. Through the Catholic Scouts - which are very proud of their Arab-Christian and Palestinian origins - the mayor hopes to counteract the depopulation.

Nevertheless, Fassouta has three thousand inhabitants, making it the largest Christian village in Israel. The level of education is high. According to 2000 figures, 60,5 % of young people passed the Bagrut matriculation exam, comparable to the Baccalauréat in France. Many young people from Fassouta become doctors, engineers or lawyers.

Another major problem is the geographical location of the village. Due to the proximity of the Lebanese border, the village is isolated. There is only one street, along which you enter and exit the village to Haifa or Nazareth. According to Mayor Edgar Dakwar, the inhabitants of Fassouta are not allowed to cross the border to Lebanon, not even to visit family members.

There is no industry in Fassouta to provide jobs for young people, nor does agriculture (especially olive-growing), which we did in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, produce enough anymore ", notes Edgar Dakwar with regret.

“Recently, we joined forces with 66 other Arab villages in Israel and approached the government to denounce the injustice that Jewish villages and towns receive far more subsidies than their Arab counterparts. A conference was organized and we were promised that our 67 Arab villages will receive USD 2.5 million over the next five years”.

Dakwar considers this as a historic first step, although the sum granted is far from sufficient to put Fassouta on an equal footing with the Jewish villages. Nevertheless, he decided to "participate in this process, to talk and negotiate by legal means" and "so that justice can take place". Dakwar also emphasises:"As a minority we want peace here and in the rest of the world".


War

What is not mentioned by any of the villagers during our stay is the delicate geographical position of Fassouta, on the front line between Israel and Lebanon. In 2006 the village was bombed with Katyusha missiles for months and in response, the Israeli army sent artillery batteries to Fassouta, which they set up in the village. The inhabitants were forced to leave their homes and were evacuated by the Israeli government to so-called protected areas. This meant that normal daily life and all economic activities were stopped. Normally Israeli villages on a front line receive compensation for the economic damage suffered.

Not so for the Arab villages, however. Various residents of Fassouta subsequently lodged complaints with the Higher Court of Appeal. One of them, Suleiman Haalek, remembers the war very well. As the owner of a popular pizzeria in Fassouta since 1997, he lost around ten thousand euros as a result of the war. “Before the war, my pizzeria was a meeting point for the youngsters of the village. At least half of the young people came by daily, and my delivery service reached almost every house in the village and in the surrounding villages”, says Haalek. Another complaint came from engineer Raik Matar, who carried out construction work in Fassouta and the surrounding area. During the period that he was banned from moving outside the protected areas, the construction works were shut down and he lost in the amount of many thousands of euros, plus his office costs and contributions for various insurances. If his office had been in a Jewish village, the state would have paid him back the entire sum”, says his lawyer Dahwar.


Small community with a big heart.

We are Israeli but not Jewish, Arab but not Muslim, Catholic but not Roman Catholic”, said priest Michael Asi.


I meet priest Michael Asi, spiritual leader of the Greek Catholic or Melkite community of Fassouta, together with my Italian colleague Alberto Custadero, who works for La Republicca. Priest Asi speaks to us half in Arabic, half in Italian, and is animated when he tells us about his last stay in Rome, two months ago. “Many people in Europe do not know that Christians are still living everywhere in Israel", deplores priest Asi. He himself was confronted with this when he studied in Rome. When I was asked about my origins, I said that I was' from the Holy Land'. But every time I said that I am Israeli, but not Jew, the surprise was great. Moreover, when I added that I am Arab, but not a Muslim; and Catholic, but not Roman Catholic, they looked at me as if I came from another planet”.

The doctrine that priest Asi follows is that of the Greek-Catholic or Melkite Church. He tells us that this movement goes back to "the first century after Christ, when Christianity was introduced by the first apostles (for the ‘apostles’, he uses the Arabic word roesoel which means' messengers' - in Islam the word rasoel Allah is used for the prophet Mohamed).

Priest Asi says that in contrast to the West, where the church is more centrally run, there are many movements among Eastern Christians, with several patriarchs or bishops with powers over certain church areas. “As Greek Catholics, however, we recognise the Pope as the head of the church, but when we celebrate Mass, we do so according to the Byzantine rite”, states priest Asi.

Byzantine

The fact that the worship of the Melkites takes place according to the Byzantine rite is an important remnant of the times when Palestine was part of the Byzantine Empire and was under Hellenistic influence (hence the term Greek-Catholic). The believers assume that the liturgy of the Eastern Christians goes back to the rites of the apostles in Jerusalem.

Unlike some Eastern churches, where worship still takes place in the language of Jesus, Aramaic, the worship of the Melkites is held in Arabic, the language they took over from Arab conquerors in the seventh century.

Rome or Constantinople

An important turning point in the history of the Melkites was the moment when "the East no longer recognized the pope as the head of the church, and the West did not take the East into account ", to quote Michael Asi. The West considered the Catholic Church and Rome to be the center of Christianity, while the East had its own seat in Constantinople”, said priest Asi.

The priest thus refers to the so-called' Great schism', when in 1054 a difference in insight into the role of the Holy Spirit gave rise to a rift between the Eastern Orthodox church and the church in Rome.


Catholic

But in the eighteenth century, part of the Eastern Orthodox Church decided to return under the authority of the Pope. That is why we call ourselves Greek Catholic”, explains Michael Asi. Since 1742, the Greek Catholic Church has been in full communion with the church in Rome.

In addition to the liturgical differences, the Greek Catholic Church has other differences, particularly in the area of canonics. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, it is customary in the Greek Catholic Church for priests to marry and found a family (the celibacy only applies to bishops).

According to the priest, the inhabitants of Fassouta are very pious. We have no trouble filling the church, unlike many Christian communities in the West”, said Michael Asi. On the contrary, the church is actually far too small for the thousands of believers who attend Sunday worship services. Our faith is also reflected in the way we live. We try to do as much good as possible for our community and beyond. Everyone is committed to each other. An example are our Catholic Scouts. We try to teach them as many Christian values as possible and to make them an active part of the community, in the hope that the community will continue to take on great significance in their future lives”, concludes priest Asi.

Israeli or Arabic Christians?

When we say that we are Israeli, we are considered traitors by the Arabs. And if we say that we are Arab, this is taken badly by the Israelis”, summarizes priest Michael Asi.

Arab Christians are an integral part of the very colorful Israeli society. They can be described as Israeli citizens whose linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is defined as Arabic. Today, they account for 2% of the Israeli population.

However, the Arab Christians or Christian Arabs, as they are also called in Israel, face numerous problems.

For example, it is difficult to preserve their individuality and survival as Christian communities, as these are often scattered small communities. A prime example are the villages of Fassouta, Mi' iliya and Ilabun, which, because of their geographical position, are cut off from other (Palestinian) Christian villages, as well as from the rest of Israel (they are located in the far north of Israel).

Loyalty

Moreover, Christians in Israel are in a dilemma when it comes to their identity. On the one hand, they are Israeli citizens. On the other hand, however, many of them also feel connected with Palestine, which is often their country of origin. Priest Michael Asi tells me that his father was born in Fassouta, in Palestine at the time. But the fact that they also define themselves as Arabic or even Palestinian Christians is a thorn in the eye of the Israeli state. Eighty per cent of the Christians living in Israel are defined as Christian Arabs, and many of them identify themselves as Palestinian Christians. Although a small proportion of Israeli Christians dissociate themselves from the designation' Arab Christians' and hence also from their Islamic counterparts, most Israeli Christians today regard themselves culturally and linguistically as Arab or Palestinian Christians, with ancestors dating back to Christ's first followers.


Discrimination

Moreover, because the Arab-Christian communities fall under the designation' Arabic localities' used by the Israeli authorities, they suffer discrimination from the government. This reduces their resources and makes it difficult for them to offer the local youth prospects for the future.

In September 2014, Christians were given an independent representation in the Parliamentary Committee for Equal Opportunities in the Labor Market.  In reality, however, equal opportunities are still a long way off. It suffices to visit villages and cities with an Arab population and compare them with predominantly Jewish villages and cities.

A visit to Nazareth's Town Hall shows the dire situation in which the' Arab localities' find themselves. The building in which the mayor and the town council are located is far too small and is clearly dating back to the seventies. But because Nazareth only consists of an Arabs, there is no money for renovation. A striking contrast with the brand-new building of the Haifa municipality.

The radiance of the Christians in Israel seems to be diminishing. An example: Nazareth, of which the population consisted some ten years ago of 60% of Christians, nowadays counts 70% Muslims and only 30% Christians.


Division

Another challenge is the diversity within Israel's Christian community. The majority of Christians in Israel (and in particular the Arab Christians) belong to the Greek Catholic Church. The rest of the Israeli Christians are mainly associated with Eastern Orthodox churches, which are often linked to the specific ethnic identity of these Christian communities, such as the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Armenian Church and the Ethiopian Church.

The inhabitants of Fassouta and Mal' iliya adhere almost exclusively to the Greek Catholic Church. But even in a village with only three thousand inhabitants such as Fassouta, there appears to be divisions within the Christian community. For example, a (smaller) section of the population appears to be adhering to the movement of the movement of the neochatechumenal way, a new Catholic movement which enjoys a big popularity among Israeli Christians. This movement draws its inspiration from the catechumenate of the early Catholic Church and the preparation of converts from paganism for baptism. This highly charismatic movement successfully recruits numerous new converts.


Eastern Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Melkite. 

The church is one, but we - in the east - tried to make as many different versions of it as possible", smile priest Asi.

The first Christian communities in Roman Palestine would have been Aramaic speaking Messianic Jews. Unlike the Assyrian Nestorians - a branch of the very widespread Syrian Orthodox Christianity - the majority of Palestinian Christians decided, after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A. D., to merge into the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Roman emperors, the part of the church that after the ‘Great Schism’ of 1054  would be part of the orthodox church. Due to the fact that they joined the Roman emperors, the Syrian Orthodox Christians described the Palestinian Christians as "Melkites" (derived from the Arab word malik, which means "king"), in other words, "followers of the kingdom/Kingdom".

In the following centuries the Melkites underwent a very strong Hellenistic influence and exchanged their western Aramaic dialect for Greek. At that time (seventh century) Jerusalem and Byzantine Palestine became the epicenter of Greek culture in the Levant/ Middle East.


Schism

In 1054 the so-called "Great schism" took place within the Christian church, the schism between the Roman Catholic church on one side and the Eastern Orthodox churches on the other side. The Melkites became part of the Eastern Orthodox churches.

The disagreement between the Western and Eastern church had been going on for a long time and was partly due to the fact that the Western church considered the Patriarch of Rome (the Pope) to be the highest of the five patriarchs. The Oriental church, however, considered the five patriarchs to be equal and saw Constantinople as' the new Rome'. This situation led to a deadlock when the Pope claimed authority over the four Eastern Patriarchs, while the Patriarch of Constantinople claimed himself to be an ecumenical Patriarch, which the Pope misinterpreted as an indication of' universal Patriarch', which was therefore contested by the Western Church. The direct cause of the schism, however, was the disagreement over the so-called' trinity doctrine'. According to the Latin Church, the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit receives his personality from God the Father and from God the Son. The Orthodox Church does not recognize this and has retained the original form based on Christ's words, which state that the Holy Spirit arises" from the Father ", without any addition, such as "and the Son ".

Melkites worldwide

The region formed by the modern Israel and the Palestinian state is considered as the' Holy Land' by Christians and thus also by the Melkites, with as important holy cities Nazareth and Jerusalem in Israel, and Bethlehem in Palestine.

In June 2017, Patriarch Youssef Absi was elected Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Melkites, a month after the Vatican accepted the resignation of his predecessor Gregory III Laham.

Although the Melkite Catholic Church has Byzantine roots and follows the Byzantine rite for the liturgy, this church is fully in communion with the Catholic Church, especially after the reconfirmation of the union with Rome in 1724.

Melkite Christians live all over the world in Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, France, Mexico, the United States, Venezuela and Sweden. Worldwide they are about 1.6 million.

In Israel, Greek Catholics (or Melkites) are the largest group of Christians. The majority of some 133,000 Arab Christians, who are themselves as indigenous, describe themselves as Melkite.

The rest of the Israeli-Arab Christians belong mainly to several Eastern Orthodox churches which also have their roots in the Middle East, such as the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Coptic-Orthodox Church (the largest Christian denomination in Egypt), the Armenian Church and the Ethiopian Church. Israel also has an important Maronite community, an oriental church that remained in communion with the church in Rome (and therefore did not join the Orthodox movement in 1054) and still holds its worship in Aramaic, the language of Christ. A small minority of Christians belongs to the Anglican or Lutheran church. There are also numerous Evangelistmovements in Israel, which are enjoying increasing popularity among Israeli Christians.

Saturday 26 November 2016

Meriam's and Noura's stories or why getting married is such a big decision for women in the UAE.


I met Meriam and Noura through mutual friends. Meriam is a thirty-something Emirati woman and a successful businesswoman, living in the UAE’s capital. After pursuing higher education in Abu Dhabi, she travelled the world and is familiar with both the western and Emirati lifestyle. Like most Emirati ladies she looks traditional on the outside because she has to wear an abbaya and a scarf -called shaila – to cover her hair. But appearances are misleading.

Unlike most women here, Meriam is not at all afraid to broach sensitive subjects and to discuss topics which are considered taboo in the UAE. especially when talking to a non-Emirati. Throughout our conversation in the lobby of a posh hotel, her loosely attached shaila kept uncovering her beautiful dark hair. 

She told me that although her journey hasn’t been easy and the fact that she had to make some big sacrifices along the way, she is very proud to be an Emirati woman today:

“It’s great. I have the freedom I want. I own my own business, I travel abroad and earn my living. Women of my generation have so much more freedom than the previous generations.”

Whilst tradition still plays a major role in the lives of young Emirati men and women, major societal changes are taking place. Because most girls (about 95 %) pursue higher education, they discover a newfound freedom, travel abroad for their studies and gain financial independence.

“I don’t need a husband. I can take care of myself”, confirms Meriam.

Traditionally, marriages in the UAE are arranged by the families. But nowadays, young women wait longer and longer to get married or stay single altogether.

“Most of my female friends prefer not to get married”, Meriam states. “Many of them are lawyers and doctors. For those who marry, their marriage often ends in divorce. The problem is that men and women don’t know each other well enough before they get married.”

As young Emirati women are gaining more independence, they also aren’t willing to put up with anything anymore. When they discover that their husband has an affair or when he wants to marry another woman (men are legally allowed to have more than one wife according to sharia law), they file for divorce. That’s why so many couples split up a couple of months into their marriage”, says Meriam.

Only four decades ago, the UAE was a land of desert inhabited by Bedouin tribes, where people made a living out of camel farming, date harvesting and fishing. Nowadays, the young nation, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, has a modern urban society, and is a vibrant melting pot of nationalities and ethnicities. This leads to an exposure to different lifestyles.
Noura traveled to the UK to study and met her later to be British husband Ian over there. When I met her at her place, she looked like any young woman, dressed in jeans and a top and with her hair uncovered.

Although it is much more common for Emirati men to marry foreign women, according to Gulf News and the UAE National Bureau of Statistics, the number of Emirati women marrying foreigners is on the rise - by 15 per cent between 2009 and 2010. Noura is one of those Emirati women who chose her husband herself, something which is virtually impossible in the UAE.

Despite its modern appearance, society is still governed by sharia law, and the patriarchal rules which hold many challenges for women.
Meriam says one of the  key problems is the fact that it is illegal for men and women to live together before marriage, which means they cannot get to know each other. This law applies in the same way to the locals – as the Emirati are commonly referred to and who only make up 10 % of the population - as to the overwhelming majority of expats living in the UAE. Sexual relations outside of marriage are punishable by law, which makes dating very complicated. But for Emirati women, there is also the obligation to stay a virgin until they marry, even for modern women like Meriam.

Coming from a conservative family, Meriam gradually conquered her freedom, making sure as she set up her own business, that her family/father trusted her well enough to let her work together with men as well as women, and travel abroad on her own. After a while, she was allowed to travel alone without a guardian (which is normally required for Emirati women). “My family saw how committed I was. Also, I didn’t make bad use of my freedom”.

Noura later returned permanently to the UAE with her British husband, so that Noura, an engineer, could find work more easily and take advantage of the benefits afforded to Emirati nationals. However, couples like them (where the husband is a foreigner) face problems because of the patriarchal way in which society is organized. According to the law, women cannot transfer their nationality to their husband. Ian will therefore always be a stranger, whereas his children will get the UAE-nationality, an “absurd” situation according to Noura.

As for Meriam, who is able to succeed professionally but says she feels she has to sacrifice her personal life, she states that if she would find the “right man”, she would love to get married and have children. But the risk is too high: “I have all my rights. Why would I risk losing everything by getting married?”
According to the sharia, the husband decides whether his wife is allowed to work or travel or not.

But even in the very conservative environment that is the UAE, an inevitable transformation is taking place, and it’s women like Meriam and Noura driving it forward. The ever higher number of women who don’t want to get married is becoming a challenge for this small country, counting only 1.5 million nationals.
Recent studies suggest that as much as 30 % of women in the UAE prefer to stay single or are divorced. But is Emirati society ready to grant women more rights, so they can reach their full potential and have a life-work balance? There seems to be a big discrepancy between the Emirati traditions and what women want. “We have higher expectations of marriage. Emirati men like to take care of women. For instance, they open the door for you when you are entering a building or a car. This is their way of showing respect towards women. But we don’t need to be taken care of”.
Slowly but steadily, women are making their marks on society. The UAE seem to be at a turning point. Thanks to government programs women are promoted in leading positions ( the UAE has for instance 8 women in the national government out of 22 ministers). Many Emirati women are businesswomen who are thinking bigger and bigger. But just how long will they continue to sacrifice their personal lives? These are some of the stakes for the future of this young country.

Names and some facts in this article have been changed, to protect the identity of the interviewed women.

 Picture: a group of Emirati girls on a trip to Oman.


Why getting married is such a big decision for women in the United Arab Emirates..


I met Meriam and Noura through mutual friends. Meriam is a thirty-something Emirati woman and is a successful businesswoman, living in the UAE’s capital. After pursuing higher education in Abu Dhabi, she traveled the world and is familiar with both the Western and Emirati lifestyle. Like most Emirati ladies she looks traditional on the outside because she has to wear an abbaya and a scarf -called shaila – to cover her hair. But appearances are misleading.

Unlike most women of her generation, Meriam is not at all afraid to broach sensitive subjects and to discuss topics which are considered taboo in the UAE, especially in conversations with non-Emirati. Throughout our conversation in the lobby of a posh hotel, her loosely attached shaila keeps uncovering her beautiful dark hair. 

She tells me that although her journey hasn’t been easy and she has had to make some big sacrifices along the way, she is very proud to be an Emirati woman today:

“It’s great. I have the freedom I want. I own my own business, I travel abroad and earn my living. Women of my generation have so much more freedom than the previous generations.”

Whilst tradition still plays a major role in the lives of young Emirati men and women, major societal changes are taking place. Because most girls (about 95 %) pursue higher education, they discover a newfound freedom, travel abroad for their studies and gain financial independence.

“I don’t need a husband. I can take care of myself”, confirms Meriam.

Traditionally, marriages in the UAE are still arranged by the families. But nowadays, young women wait longer and longer to get married or stay single altogether.

“Most of my female friends prefer not to get married”, Meriam states. “Many of them are lawyers and doctors. For those who married, their marriage often ended in divorce. The problem is that men and women don’t know each other well enough before they get married.”

As young Emirati women are gaining more independence, they also aren’t willing to put up with anything anymore. When they discover that their husband has an affair or when he wants to marry another woman (men are legally allowed to have more than one wife according to sharia law), they file for divorce. That’s why so many couples split up a couple of months into their marriage”, says Meriam.

Only four decades ago, the UAE was a land of desert inhabited by Bedouin tribes, where people made a living out of camel farming, date harvesting and fishing. Nowadays, the young nation, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, has a modern urban society, and is a vibrant melting pot of nationalities and ethnicities. This leads to an exposure to different lifestyles.

Noura traveled to the UK to study and met her later to be British husband Ian over there. When I met her at her place, she looked like any young woman, dressed in jeans and a top and with her hair uncovered.
Although it is much more common for Emirati men to marry foreign women, according to Gulf News and the UAE National Bureau of Statistics, the number of Emirati women marrying foreigners is on the rise - by 15 per cent between 2009 and 2010. Noura is one of those Emirati women who chose her husband herself, something which is virtually impossible in the UAE.

Despite its modern appearance, society is still governed by sharia law, and the patriarchal rules which hold many challenges for women.
Meriam says one of the  key problems is the fact that it is illegal for men and women to live together before marriage, so they can get to know each other. This law also applies to the overwhelming majority of expats living in the UAE (the locals – as the Emirati are commonly referred to - only make up for some 10 % of the population). Moreover, women are supposed to be a virgin before they marry, even modern women like Meriam. Sexual relations outside of marriage are punishable by law (a rule which also applies to expats living in the UAE) which makes dating very complicated.

Coming from a conservative family, Meriam gradually conquered her freedom, making sure as she set up her own business, that her family/father trusted her well enough to let her work together with women as well as men, and travel abroad on her own. After a while, she was allowed to travel alone without a guardian (which is normally required for Emirati women when they travel). “My family saw how committed I was. Also, I didn’t make bad use of my freedom”.

Noura later returned permanently to the UAE with her British husband, so that Noura, an engineer, could find work more easily and take advantage of the benefits afforded to Emirati nationals. However, couples like them (where the husband is a foreigner) face problems because of the patriarchal way in which society is organized. According to the law, women cannot transfer their nationality to their husband. Ian will therefore always be a stranger, whereas his children will get the UAE-nationality, an “absurd” situation according to Noura.

As for Meriam, who is able to succeed professionally but says she feels she has to sacrifice her personal life, she states that if she would find the “right man”, she would love to get married and have children. But the risk is too high: “I have all my rights. Why would I risk losing everything by getting married?”
According to the sharia, the husband decides whether his wife is allowed to work or travel or not.

But in the very conservative environment that is the UAE, a transformation is taking place, and it’s women like Meriam and Noura driving it forward.
Recent studies suggest that as much as 30 % of women in the UAE prefer to stay single or are divorced. There seems to be a big discrepancy between the Emirati traditions and between what women want. “We have higher expectations of marriage. Emirati men like to take care of women. For instance, they open the door for you when you are entering a building or a car. This is their way of showing respect towards women. But we don’t need to be taken care of”. The ever higher number of women who don’t want to get married is becoming a challenge for this small country, counting 1.5 million nationals.

Slowly but steadily, women are making their marks on society. The UAE seem to be at a turning point. Thanks to government programs women are promoted in leading positions ( the UAE has for instance 8 women in the national government out of 22 ministers). Many Emirati women are businesswomen who are thinking bigger and bigger. But just how far can they go? Is Emirati society ready to give women more rights, so they can realize their full potential? These are some of the stakes for the future of this young country.

Names and some facts in this article have been changed, to protect the identity of the interviewed women.

 Picture: a group of Emirati girls on an excursion to Oman


 

Wednesday 28 September 2016

Born in Ouagadougou, 36-year-old politician and feminist Assita Kanko explains to me how she finds the courage to speak out against Female Genital.Mutilation.





After having come to Belgium at the age of 20 and having worked different jobs, Assita went into Belgian politics in 2010 with the objective to fight for women’s rights. In 2014 she gained notoriety with her book ‘Parce que tu es une fille” (Because you are a girl). In this autobiographical account, she recalls when she underwent the traumatic experience of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) as a five-year-old in her native Burkina Faso.

She is one of a few women brave enough to speak out against this horrific practice that touches millions of girls each year worldwide, and has been interviewed by the likes of Al Jazeera, writes columns for the Huffington Post and -recently- published a remarkable opinion piece in the Guardian as a response to an editorial in the Economist, in which the author defended some "minor" forms of  FGM as “acceptable”.

I met with Assita on my home turf, in the lively Brussels' neighborhood of Matongé (known as “little Africa” because of its majority African population) and in one of my favorite café's, the Art Nouveau l'Ultime Atôme. Assita mentions that these cozy surroundings were the background when she wrote the first part of her new book "The second half", which treats the topics of gendercide, honor crimes, child marriages and FGM. We talk about her ongoing activism - in addition to being a member of different think-thanks and a speaker on feminist subjects, Assita is also a local politician in Elsene, the district of Brussels where we are having coffee.

When Assita arrived, many heads turned. The 36-year-old is nothing short of a celebrity in her own district (she also lives in Elsene), but also far beyond. She is regularly interviewed on feminism by Belgian media - Dutch and French speaking alike, which is exceptional in Belgium (Assita speaks French & Dutch perfectly - she started to learn the latter language a few years after she arrived in Belgium).

In her book “Because you are a girl”, Assita states that the hardest thing to bear for her was the indifference of the people around her, and the betrayal by her mother, who took her by the hand and said she was going to play at a friend’s house. Instead, she took her to an old house where a woman “cut” the girls of the village.

“As long as there is a woman or a girl suffering somewhere, we have to speak up. Indifference is a crime”. This is also the reason why she decided to talk about the fact that she had undergone FGM, after having kept it a secret for many years.  

According to Assita, a new kind of feminism is needed, a feminism in which women sustain each other. I tell her how I was startled by a remark from a female colleague at the Belgian Public Broadcasting. She couldn’t grasp why I was so interested in writing about Moroccan women’s rights, as surely this was not my problem.

Assita calls for total solidarity among women. “We all have sisters and mothers”. Even Assita’s  8-year-old daughter calls herself a feminist. “We also need more men who call themselves feminists”.

Tuesday 6 September 2016

Pat Maharaj, from Durban (South-Africa)


Pat conquered Mount Kilimanjaro on the 19th of August, right on the morning of her 55th birthday. Why did she decide to embark on this project? And in what way did this journey transform her?

The 19th of August 2016 not only marks Pat’s 55th birthday this year, but is also testament to her willpower. After one year of training and six challenging days she made it to the summit of the 5895-meter-high Kilimanjaro.

“It was hard, although I didn’t suffer from nausea or altitude sickness. I concentrated on going slowly slowly, pole pole, step by step. Something I’m not used to doing in my daily life”.

The 1,50-meter-tall woman is a bundle of energy. On her way up the Kilimanjaro she took the time to halt whenever she saw climbers struggle and to encourage them not to give up.

On one of these occasions she passed three women whose water supplies had run out because the water inside their water bottles had frozen. Instead of turning her back on them, as other passersby did, Pat stopped to offer them her own water.

By coincidence, they all turned out to be South-Africans, as they found out afterwards when they ran into each other in a restaurant in Arusha, where Pat was identified by the three women as the “Indian” lady who came to their rescue.

Pat faced a series of setbacks herself recently. But during it all, she kept helping others through her voluntary work.

She says she learned a lot from her own struggles and she wants to empower other women going through difficult times. Her family went through job loss, financial difficulties and was burgled on several occasions, all in the space of three years. However, this didn’t deter Pat from doing good. Her faith kept her strong. Four years ago, she took in a homeless couple with an eight-month-old baby that had been living on the streets in front of her house. For several months, they shared Pat’s home, until it turned out that the young family had been stealing jewelry and other valuables from her family home all that time. But instead of letting her head down or becoming bitter, Pat decided to have a positive take on life.

“Instead of complaining about what had happened to me and the material things that I’d lost, I focused on what really mattered. I told myself that I could conquer any challenge if I set my mind to it. That’s when I got the idea to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.”

Despite her financial struggle to be able to afford the different training camps, the costs of equipment and the trip to Tanzania (not to speak of the costs of the climb), Pat stayed resolved. She says that her recipe for success is actually quite simple.

“You take one step at a time. I learned that my strength could only come from within, from believing in myself. From then on I just needed to stay determined and not let go until I achieved my goal.”

Pat says she hopes to inspire other women to follow their own path and live their dreams .