The attitudes of Christian religious leaders in the Middle East and North Africa towards the Arab Spring have differed since it erupted in 2011. While these religious leaders in Egypt and Syria opposed the 2011 uprisings, their counterparts in Iraq and Lebanon have been supportive of the second wave of protests that has been ongoing since 2019.
They can see that unless there are political reforms, Christianity has no future in the region. In 2011, Egypt’s Coptic Church asked its followers not to participate in the 25 January protests against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Bishop Markus, then head of the Information Committee of the Holy Synod, said: “These demonstrations do not know their purpose, nor do we know their details and who is behind them.” He said that the Orthodox Church called on its “children” not to be led by calls to join the demonstrations.
In Syria, the Council of Bishops in Damascus issued a statement in March 2011 insisting that “what is happening in our country is a foreign conspiracy in which, unfortunately, internal actors have been mixed up and the malicious media outlets have tried to distort the bright image that Syria enjoys at home and abroad”.
