Political Polarization, Religious Difference, and US Foreign Policy and Advocacy on Behalf of Christians in the Middle East

This paper grapples with contested claims-making about religious difference and calls for religious rights. In particular, I examine how the politicization and polarization of religious freedom in US foreign policy has fragmented advocacy on behalf of religious groups, with a specific focus on Christians in the Middle East. Based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Washington, DC among conservative American Christian religious freedom advocates, I argue that transnational advocacy on behalf of Middle Eastern Christians is powerfully shaped by domestic culture wars on religion. Advocates localize the suffering of Christians in the Middle East to claim that Christians everywhere, including in the United States, are persecuted. In positioning themselves as the protectors of Christian kin, they grapple with accusations of Christian favoritism and anti-Muslim bias. This advocacy ultimately frames the plight of Christians in the Middle East through the narrow lens of religion, blaming terrorism while absolving authoritarianism. At the heart of these politicized claims is the instability of the categories of religion and religious difference, as well as the polarization of religious freedom, paving the way for interest groups to construct representations of Christian persecution in line with their political interests.