MER Article Becoming Armenian in Lebanon Each year in April, the municipality of Burj Hammoud, a densely populated residential and commercial city just east of Beirut, hosts a three-day festival called Badguer, the Armenian word for “image.” Free and open to the public, the event has variously been staged in an old concrete factory, a bloc Joanne Randa Nucho • 14 min read
MER Article With Friends Like These In June 2010, amidst escalating controversy over the construction of a mosque and Islamic community center near the former site of the World Trade Center, two Egyptians found themselves on the receiving end of xenophobic abuse as a crowd accosted them with calls to “go home.” Unbeknownst to the angr Michael Wahid Hanna • 10 min read
MER Article Copts Under Mursi Throughout his 2012 presidential campaign, Muhammad Mursi was keen to emphasize that he would be a president for all Egyptians, not just supporters of the Society of Muslim Brothers, and that he believed in equal citizenship for all, irrespective of religious affiliation. The majority of Egypt’s Cop Mariz Tadros • 11 min read
MER Article Iraqi Christians: A Primer Media coverage in the West can overstate the degree to which Christians are “disappearing” from the Middle East. But one place where such characterizations have merit is Iraq. In the years since the 2003 invasion led by the United States, at least half of Iraq’s Christians have fled the country to e Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 5 min read
MER Article Nazareth Dispatch They are Israel’s Siamese twin cities, forced into an uncomfortable pairing more than half a century ago. Nazareth and Natzrat Illit, or Upper Nazareth in English, almost share a name. Although formally separated by a ring road, Israel has tied their fates together. Each is engaged in a battle with Jonathan Cook • 10 min read
MER Article Covering the Christians of the Holy Land Every year around Christmas and Easter, a kind of meta-ritual takes place in which American journalists describe how these holidays are celebrated in the “Holy Land.” It is a long-running story, never stripped of politics. In 1923 , for example, the New York Times published a classically Oriental Amahl Bishara • 15 min read
MER Article The Greek-Turkish Population Exchange The photographs are compelling: Greek Orthodox Christians are gathered in small groups on the Aegean coast of what is now Turkey, wearing too much clothing for the hot day, whatever possessions they could carry sitting at their feet, their faces drawn with worry as they stare at the water, awaiting Sarah Shields • 11 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Summer 2013) The problems of Christians in the Middle East are often not discussed forthrightly, either in the region or in writings about it. One reason is that, in many ways, the problems of Christians are everyone’s problems -- Israeli occupation hurts Christian and Muslim Palestinians alike, as does second-c The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Editor's Bookshelf Although the Congressional investigating committee did everything in its power to minimize Israel’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal, the hearings and their fallout did suggest that Israel played a major, and very likely initiating, role in the sordid affair. This and other matters skirted by both th (Author not identified) • 4 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 2013) Aarts, Paul and Francesco Cavatorta, eds. Civil Society in Syria and Iran: Activism in Authoritarian Contexts (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2013). Al-Ali, Nadje and Deborah Al-Najjar, eds. We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013). Al-Am The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Sheila Ryan For MERIP, I seem to specialize in writing remembrances of friends who have passed away. Ten years ago I wrote about Edward W. Said. Now I have to introduce Sheila Patricia Ryan (1945-2013) to a younger generation that might be unfamiliar with her contributions. On February 10, Sheila’s family and f Nubar Hovsepian • 3 min read
MER Article Sassoon, Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party Joseph Sassoon, Saddam Hussein’s Ba‘th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). Since the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the difficulties of writing about the exercise of power inside authoritarian Arab regimes have been well known. The regimes’ inner workin Roger Owen • 3 min read
