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March 29, 2013 Friday
Lawrence Solomon: Christian exodus could fuel Middle East decline
FP COMMENT
Christians in their millions are leaving Muslim lands, a heartbreak
for the region's 12 million remaining Copts, Catholics, Chaldeans and
other Christian communities, many of which predate Muslim communities.
But their exodus also represents a great tragedy for the region's
Muslims: The Middle East's Christians, with their free-wheeling,
free-market orientation, have for centuries created prosperity in an
otherwise stagnant Middle East; once the Christians are gone, an
economic desolation is likely to revisit their historic homelands.
Much of the Middle East today is known for its economic backwardness -
only sub-Saharan Africa fares worse than the Arab world, according to
the United Nations Arab Development Report. But it wasn't always so.
When Europe was a backwater in the centuries following Christ's birth,
the Christian Middle East was a splendour, its many peoples made the
region among the world's richest and most vibrant. In the first few
centuries following the Arab invasion of the Christian countries in
the 7th century AD, when Crusaders from then-backward countries such
as England and France tried to take back the Holy Lands, they were
amazed at the opulence they found.
The Crusaders ultimately failed in their Holy Wars and much of the
Middle East would fall into disrepair under rule of the Ottoman Empire
and the restraints of its Sharia Law. Christian Europe advanced,
meanwhile, overtaking the Islamic lands in economic prowess by
promoting individual liberty and capitalism, not least through the
creation of joint stock companies, insurance and other financial
innovations that furthered capital formation and international trade.
Muslim merchants could not compete well. For one thing, the Ottomans
were insular. Seeing themselves as superior and having little to learn
from the West, they sent to the West few embassies that could further
trade. For another, under Islamic law a Muslim couldn't settle
disputes in the courts of infidels. This limitation handicapped
Muslim-Christian business relations, particularly since under Islamic
law the word of Muslims often trumped that of infidels, even when the
infidels had documents to back up their claims. For a third, the
laudable Islamic desire for equity required that upon death at least
two-thirds of a Muslim estate be split among what are often numerous
family members - children, wives, parents, siblings. This
fragmentation of estates acted to thwart the continuance of family
empires and other large business enterprises, typically leading Muslim
enterprises to operate on a small scale.
The Ottomans were enlightened, however, in adopting a largely
hands-off policy toward their many non-Muslim minorities. Whenever a
Muslim wasn't a party to a transaction, a Copt or Maronite Christian,
or any minority for that matter, could freely enter into all manner of
business arrangements and operate under the laws of any court the
parties chose. With this wide array of structures on offer, and the
freedom to choose, business deals were struck between non-Muslims in
whatever way was least costly, least bureaucratic, and most secure.
Sometimes deals would be structured along Western lines, sometimes
along lines local to a Middle East community, sometimes even along
Sharia lines - whatever best suited the parties. The effect was soon
seen in the trading houses of the Middle East.
In Beirut by the mid-1800s, entrepreneurial Christian families
controlled virtually all of the trade with Europe. In the Turkish
trading city of Trabzon by the late 1800s, more than 80% of both
exporters and importers were local Christians, generally Greek or
Armenian. By the early 1900s, although Muslims constituted about 80%
of the Ottoman Empire and Christians less than 20%, Muslims played
almost no role in trade with Europe and only a small role in trade
within the Ottoman Empire - two-thirds of the local traders then were
either Greeks or Armenians, just 15% were Muslim.
Over the last century, the once-formidable Christian presence in the
Middle East has ratcheted down down down, to now rest at 4% of the
region's population. Armenians fled Turkey in the convulsions of the
First World War. The 1950s saw the departure of Egypt's Greeks - the
country's most affluent and influential minority - under the military
dictatorship of Abdul Gamal Nasser. The Lebanese Christians then had
their turn to suffer persecution, then the Christians of Iraq. Now the
Arab Spring is leading to more convulsions, and to an inevitable
further departure of Christians from their native lands. Even
Bethlehem, Christ's very birthplace, has lost most of its Christians,
and some predict it will lose the rest.
The Arab Spring with its resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism is
striking out one of the hopes for prosperity that the UN Arab report
cited - the liberation of women and their enlistment into the
workforce. The resurgence of fossil fuel production in the Western
world is striking out the likelihood that high energy prices in future
will sustain the Middle East's economies. The loss of the Middle
East's Christians - the region's indispensable
March 29, 2013 Friday
Lawrence Solomon: Christian exodus could fuel Middle East decline
FP COMMENT
Christians in their millions are leaving Muslim lands, a heartbreak
for the region's 12 million remaining Copts, Catholics, Chaldeans and
other Christian communities, many of which predate Muslim communities.
But their exodus also represents a great tragedy for the region's
Muslims: The Middle East's Christians, with their free-wheeling,
free-market orientation, have for centuries created prosperity in an
otherwise stagnant Middle East; once the Christians are gone, an
economic desolation is likely to revisit their historic homelands.
Much of the Middle East today is known for its economic backwardness -
only sub-Saharan Africa fares worse than the Arab world, according to
the United Nations Arab Development Report. But it wasn't always so.
When Europe was a backwater in the centuries following Christ's birth,
the Christian Middle East was a splendour, its many peoples made the
region among the world's richest and most vibrant. In the first few
centuries following the Arab invasion of the Christian countries in
the 7th century AD, when Crusaders from then-backward countries such
as England and France tried to take back the Holy Lands, they were
amazed at the opulence they found.
The Crusaders ultimately failed in their Holy Wars and much of the
Middle East would fall into disrepair under rule of the Ottoman Empire
and the restraints of its Sharia Law. Christian Europe advanced,
meanwhile, overtaking the Islamic lands in economic prowess by
promoting individual liberty and capitalism, not least through the
creation of joint stock companies, insurance and other financial
innovations that furthered capital formation and international trade.
Muslim merchants could not compete well. For one thing, the Ottomans
were insular. Seeing themselves as superior and having little to learn
from the West, they sent to the West few embassies that could further
trade. For another, under Islamic law a Muslim couldn't settle
disputes in the courts of infidels. This limitation handicapped
Muslim-Christian business relations, particularly since under Islamic
law the word of Muslims often trumped that of infidels, even when the
infidels had documents to back up their claims. For a third, the
laudable Islamic desire for equity required that upon death at least
two-thirds of a Muslim estate be split among what are often numerous
family members - children, wives, parents, siblings. This
fragmentation of estates acted to thwart the continuance of family
empires and other large business enterprises, typically leading Muslim
enterprises to operate on a small scale.
The Ottomans were enlightened, however, in adopting a largely
hands-off policy toward their many non-Muslim minorities. Whenever a
Muslim wasn't a party to a transaction, a Copt or Maronite Christian,
or any minority for that matter, could freely enter into all manner of
business arrangements and operate under the laws of any court the
parties chose. With this wide array of structures on offer, and the
freedom to choose, business deals were struck between non-Muslims in
whatever way was least costly, least bureaucratic, and most secure.
Sometimes deals would be structured along Western lines, sometimes
along lines local to a Middle East community, sometimes even along
Sharia lines - whatever best suited the parties. The effect was soon
seen in the trading houses of the Middle East.
In Beirut by the mid-1800s, entrepreneurial Christian families
controlled virtually all of the trade with Europe. In the Turkish
trading city of Trabzon by the late 1800s, more than 80% of both
exporters and importers were local Christians, generally Greek or
Armenian. By the early 1900s, although Muslims constituted about 80%
of the Ottoman Empire and Christians less than 20%, Muslims played
almost no role in trade with Europe and only a small role in trade
within the Ottoman Empire - two-thirds of the local traders then were
either Greeks or Armenians, just 15% were Muslim.
Over the last century, the once-formidable Christian presence in the
Middle East has ratcheted down down down, to now rest at 4% of the
region's population. Armenians fled Turkey in the convulsions of the
First World War. The 1950s saw the departure of Egypt's Greeks - the
country's most affluent and influential minority - under the military
dictatorship of Abdul Gamal Nasser. The Lebanese Christians then had
their turn to suffer persecution, then the Christians of Iraq. Now the
Arab Spring is leading to more convulsions, and to an inevitable
further departure of Christians from their native lands. Even
Bethlehem, Christ's very birthplace, has lost most of its Christians,
and some predict it will lose the rest.
The Arab Spring with its resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism is
striking out one of the hopes for prosperity that the UN Arab report
cited - the liberation of women and their enlistment into the
workforce. The resurgence of fossil fuel production in the Western
world is striking out the likelihood that high energy prices in future
will sustain the Middle East's economies. The loss of the Middle
East's Christians - the region's indispensable