News
by Kristine Greenaway
Tarek Mitri knows that his identity as a Christian affects what people expect of him. The Lebanese academic, whose career has spanned politics, diplomacy and a stint on the staff of the World Council of Churches, has learned to handle reactions from people who have set ideas about what he will, and should, say on public issues.
As a member of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, Mitri is closely associated with a Christian group that has a strong presence in the Middle East.
“Sometimes I am perceived for who I am as an individual, sometimes as a representative of my community,” Mitri says.
In a region where the “politics of identity” are at the heart of much of the conflict, it takes careful negotiation and a thick skin to put forward ideas that may diverge from what he is expected to say as a member of a particular faith community.
“When the leaders of my community have different positions than I do, I speak from my conscience, not as someone speaking for my identity group,” Mitri acknowledges.
Following his keynote presentation on the Middle East to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches on Friday, a participant challenged Mitri to declare that Christians in the Middle East are victims of genocide. Mitri thought that the use of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” is more appropriate, adding that both Christians and Muslims are victims of the violence.
“This is an example of when my personal convictions are in tension with being the voice of my community’s grievances,” Mitri says. “As a politician in Lebanon, there were moments when this tension was so strong I wondered if I should continue.”
As the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on Libya, Mitri spoke frankly when addressing the Security Council rather than using the carefully indirect and allusive language of international diplomacy. It is the same approach he took as a minister in successive Lebanese governments over a ten-year period.
Today, Mitri is a self-described “public intellectual.” As Director of the Issam Fares Institute on Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, Mitri continues to challenge perceptions. His role is to create a bridge between academics engaged in research and policy makers engaged in decision-making and action. This means convincing people to recognize the value of each other’s approach to understanding the region’s issues.
Mitri’s objective is to prepare academics, researchers and policy-makers to collaborate in gathering and analyzing the information that will result in public policy that is inclusive of all identity groups, an approach this Lebanese Christian believes is vital to peace and stability in the Middle East.
Mitri credits his ability to work with diverse groups to his time with the World Council of Churches as coordinator of the Office of Inter-Religious Dialogue.
“I learned to be sensitive to gender, cultural and religious plurality. I learned too from how WCC conducts business through genuine dialogue and consensus-based decision-making that takes into consideration multiple voices,” he says.
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