Harmonious Coexistence?

​​Osama Khazouz, 35, comes from a Jordanian Bedouin clan. But he and his family belong to a religious minority in Jordan – they are Catholics.

Khazouz speaks good German and is interested in Western culture. His circle of friends includes Christians as well as many Muslims. Khazouz says that he makes no distinction between the two groups and calls the Muslim majority that lives around him "my Arab brothers."

He says that religious differences always take a backseat to national unity. And he feels it is important that Jordanians and Arabs stand together, for instance, when it comes to conflicts with Western countries and Western ways of thinking.

Solidarity with Muslims

One example is the dispute over the caricatures of Mohammed. Although the Prophet Mohammed plays no role in the Christian religious tradition, the 35-year-old shares the sense of outrage felt by many Muslims. "I've stopped buying Danish products – out of solidarity with the people here. After all, we are part of this country and we cannot detach ourselves from the rest of the population."

Khazouz says that this solidarity is perfectly natural. But could he be saying this because he knows that the small Christian minority can ill afford to fall into conflict with the Muslim majority? At least nothing in his manner indicates such a motivation. When he gets on the topic of the war on Iraq, his indignation appears genuine enough. But surely he must find it difficult as a Christian living in a predominantly Muslim country?

Khazouz disagrees: "No, not at all. We make our decisions as individuals. During the war on Iraq, hundreds of thousands of people in Jordan stopped buying American products, drinking Coca Cola, eating at McDonald's and Burger King, and so on. That's a peaceful form of protest! And we Christians took part without any pressure whatsoever. I do it as an individual, out of love for my country and the loving people in it."

"Jordanians are not aggressive with us"

Annegret Bettex, the German minister of a small protestant church in Jordan, also says that she feels accepted by the Muslim majority. She says that she has felt no hostility during the caricature dispute.

Bettex says that her congregation, which is made up primarily of the wives of Muslim men, has debated the controversy surrounding the caricatures published by European newspapers.

Cornelia Petropulo, the German secretary of the church, is married to a Jordanian man. She totally agrees with Bettex: "Jordanians talk about it of course, but they are not aggressive with us foreigners, not at all. We had a small demonstration here, but it remained totally peaceful. Although the government sent in hundreds of troops from the army, the demonstration stayed very, very peaceful. Aside from the fact that they boycott a few Danish products, you don't notice it much. I don't know what it's like in the mosques, if the dispute is used to stir up people on Fridays or not. I think the majority is smart enough to avoid being provoked into doing or saying something rash."

Equality before the law

According to Petropulo, the members of the protestant congregation are not afraid. She says that Jordanians are generally very friendly toward foreigners, but they remain extremely suspicious of government authorities. People are very cautious about expressing their political opinions. After all, the secret police has deployed a large number of agents to keep an eye on the population.

In contrast to other countries in the region, radical Islamic fundamentalists have enjoyed comparatively little influence in Jordan, although Islam has played an increasingly visible role in people's daily lives over the past few years. Palestinians make up over 50% of the population, but Khazouz remains confident that political forces like the Hamas movement will be unable to influence the royal family or alter the politically moderate course of the country in the foreseeable future.

Khazouz emphasizes that his rights are just as recognized as those of any Muslim living in Jordan. And he sees the kingdom as being on the right path toward strengthening its democratic ideals.

There is no perfect harmony

Similar words of praise are often also heard from foreigners. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently commended Jordan explicitly for its "highly de-escalating role" in the caricature dispute. Gisela von Mutius, who has headed the local office of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation since 2004, even goes one step further and applauds the generally tolerant stance of Jordan, despite the fact that, as she puts it, religious forces are gaining ground in Jordan, too.

Nevertheless, relations between both religious groups are by no means perfectly harmonious. Muslims who convert to Christianity face penalties and are socially ostracized. By contrast, conversions in the other direction present no problems whatsoever.

A Jordanian priest recently complained to a German news agency that he felt that he was subjected to increasingly skeptical glances by some Muslim Jordanians who see him, an Arab Christian, as a natural ally of the West. He has not been physically attacked or discriminated against as such, but he was the victim of one nasty attack: someone smeared the insult "infidel" on his car.

Andrea Seeger

© DEUTSCHE WELLE/Qantara.de 2006

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen

Qantara.de

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