Arab Christians and Their Not So Springly Plight

Just before Christmas a book was published that looks to be enormously timely given events in the Arab world over the last two years. It treats one of the least-known religious groups, viz., Arab Christians: Najib George Awad, And Freedom Became a Public-Square: Political, Sociological and Religious Overviews on the Arab Christians and the Arabic Spring (Lit Verlag, 2012), 280pp.

About this book we are told by the publisher:

From an Arab Christian perspective, this book introduces some of the substantial components and the pivotal ramifications of the latest revolutions in the Arab World, known as "the Arabic Spring." It offers a fresh, timely, and intellectual reading of the promising "Spring" in Syria and in the rest of the "born-again" Arab world. The first part of the book looks at the uprisings in general, while the second part examines Christians in the Arab world and their view of the uprisings, with primary attention to the case of Syria. The third part is an invitation for developing an Arabic contextual religious discourse out of the recent Arabic world's (deeply religious) context and changes. The book will benefit those who would like to have a general idea about what happened, and is still happening, in the Arab world, as well as those who would like to get some insightful and coherent understanding of why, how, and on what presumptions the Arab Christians base their appraisal of, and stances on, the Arabic Spring. (Series: Studies on Oriental Church History / Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchengeschichte - Vol. 46)