Christian Missions after Arab Spring

Seo, Dong Chan

The‘Arab Spring’is a metaphor for Arab uprisings containing some Western-Centric prejudices. It began in 2010 in Tunisia and quickly spread to Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, and to other countries in the region. In this paper, the‘Arab Spring’metaphor is viewed not just as a desire for a western style democracy but as the legitimate and courageous voices of ordinary people demanding human rights and dignity against the neo-liberal monsters of the global capitalistic system. When Islamists had taken control over various regions during the chaotic unfolding of the‘Arab Spring’, the Arabs experienced first-hand their own incompetence to solve accumulated socio-economic-political problems. Furthermore, Islamists brought back a theocracy of Islam, forcefully subjugating people to conform to Sharia. The cruel acts of the Islamic State in the name of Sharia awakened the people to know the true identity of Islam. These negative experiences incited people to question their traditional value system, triggered a shift of paradigm and values beyond political spheres, thereby creating freedom to discuss faith and to reflect more openly than before on their values as well as about their future. This change brought about a new positive phase of Christian missions in the Middle East.

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