Portfolio Post #1
I will be researching the persecution of Christians in Iraq following the US invasion and subsequent occupation. I am particularly interested in how “Iraqi Freedom” has led to the rise of jihadist groups, in northern cities such as Mosul, which has prompted the persecution of Christian minorities in the region.
In a country that espouses Christian values and morals and often uses such basis as means to promote “American Values” internationally, the irony of the Iraq war lies in the negative impact US foreign policy has had on Christian populations in the Middle East. The US has had a strong Christian element in its own history and Christian evangelical leaders themselves were quite supportive of Bush’s war. Unfortunately, such war brought devastating consequences to the Iraqi population as a whole, as well as Christian minorities. I will be researching the role the US has played in the persecution of Christians in Iraq and how the US invasion impacted the lives of minority Christian groups throughout the country.
Did foreign policy makers consider the impact the US invasion and occupation would have on the Christian minority? Has US foreign policy tried not to appear “pro-Christian” in order to avoid supporting the jihadist narrative that the US was a crusader nation? Has the US trying to be religiously neutral contributed to the persecution of Christians? What role can the US play to promote freedom and democracy while also protecting minority rights?
Although I want to focus on Iraq, there are other instances in which US foreign policy has affected the lives of Christian minorities such as in Egypt following the revolution and the US non-intervention in Syria. How can I use patterns in both instances to highlight the US’ role in Christian persecution and how can these patterns help us to better prevent it in the future?
I plan on continuing this work beyond this class. I have a particular interest in the Middle East and am a Christian myself. I plan on studying abroad in the Arab World in the near future, and hopefully, have a career centered on Middle Eastern politics.
You have an interesting topic area here, Rachel, and there is certainly much in the complex aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War that could be researched. A conversation with your mentor will probably be quite important in helping you clarify the possible directions the project could take and where the puzzles in this broad topic area might be. In addition to meeting with your mentor an important next step would be to start to explore what scholars are saying about this broad topic area, and more specific puzzles or debates within it, to point you towards those deeper research puzzles that you could pursue in 206 and 306.
One word of caution, for some thought, as you think about this topic area, though: be careful about embedding assumptions in your question. Your first paragraph already makes a cause-effect claim (“…how “Iraqi Freedom” has led to the rise of jihadist groups…”). Of course, we need to research things to figure out what has led to the rise of these groups and we shouldn’t assume the priority of one factor over others in advance. Similarly, aiming to “…to highlight the US’ role in Christian persecution…” again already includes an assumption! Work on identifying the puzzling *outcomes* that you want to explain (remembering that these should be questions to which you don’t know the answer) and then we can dig deeper on the puzzles. With some more research — and this is an ongoing process — we’re going to work towards some “why…?” or “what explains…?” type questions that get us towards the idea of *understanding* as discussed by Booth et al. (p. 23).
Keep up the reading and research — I’m very interested to see how the project develops in the next few weeks!
Obviously Dr. B is correct in cautioning you against having assumptions at the heart of your research. However, as we talked about in class today, I think it could be really interesting what you come up with in this project because you do have a personal connection. Also, just to echo Dr. B again, I think you need to narrow down, or at least focus in on some more specific goals, but I look forward to seeing what you come up with in the semesters to come.
One interesting aspect of this topic that you could potentially look at is whether there is any relationship between a country receiving U.S. aid and how Christians are treated in that country. Another would perhaps be the relationship between the level of political freedom in a society and how Christians, and other minority groups, are treated. For example, do more repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and Egypt treat Christians differently than more relatively free states like Tunisia do. I personally, find this topic fascinating and am looking forward to seeing what you find!