CHRISTIAN ARMED GROUPS A Forgotten Actor of the Middle Eastern Conflicts

Abstract

The text will focus on several Middle East conflict areas where Christian activities and violence have been present in the modern history of the region. In the light of Phil Wil-liams’s violent non-state actor (VNSA) typology, it will explain the concept of Middle East-ern Christian violence – from the aggressive-dominant violence seeking to maintain polit-ical status quo, through nationalist-liberation movements, to purely defensive violence.

Keywords

• vnsa
• christian violence
• christian militancy
• middle east
• lebanese civil war
• syrian war after 2011
• violence in iraq after 2003