Abstract
Text defines the political and religious context of the transformation of the Middle East from 2003 to 2016. The author addresses how to overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 and the subsequent war in Iraq, as well as the civil war in Syria and so-called Arab Spring has influenced the lives of minority communities.
The chapter describes definitions of the term minority, respectively ethno-religious minority, as well as issues of individual and collective identity. According to author, we shall approach the communities labelled as minority not as the a priori power-less, passive victims of the majority, but as the at least potentially active participants in the social and political affairs that may take advantage of various strategies to strengthen their own position within the majority as well as to promote the interests of the society as a whole.
It is not primarily important what the numeric subordination of some minority is, but what their relationship with the power structure is like.