Christians can be 'agents of forgiveness and reconciliation' amid Middle East unrest

As another authoritarian regime crumbles in the Middle East, Terry Ascott has high hopes for the church in the region regardless of what replaces the old orders.

Terry, chief executive of Christian broadcasters SAT-7, has been living in the Middle East for nearly 40 years and has never seen anything like the demonstrations that have swept across the region in the last few weeks.

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, he hoped that one day something similar would happen in the Middle East, where authoritarian regimes have defined the political landscape for decades. No one could really imagine it happening back then, he recalls, but now that it has, a new future for the region and for the church is within tantalising reach.

"I can't begin to stress how significant these days are," he says.

"There is no doubt we are going to look back on this revolution as a massive turning point for the whole region, and for good or for bad, life is never going to be the same again for the church or for Christian witness in this part of the world."

That's not to say Terry expects the Middle East to be changed in a day.

In Iran two years ago, the people rose up and lost their lives in a desperate struggle against the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but it was brutally suppressed and failed to bring the breakthrough so many Iranians had hoped for.

In Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak was ousted a few weeks ago, 43 demonstrators who were picked up during the protests have still not been returned to their families and no one knows whether they are dead or alive. Post-revolution, the food prices are still high, wages have not increased, and jobs are in short supply.

Yet the people are still full of joy, says Terry, because the oppressive fear they lived under before has gone and even if the migration towards freedom is a slow one, there is the conviction that it will be established one way or another.

"There are going to be countries that are really changed and there are other countries where it's going to take longer and there may be setbacks, but this is not a reversible thing, any more than the vote for women in Britain was reversible," says Terry.

"There may be setbacks and oppressions but ultimately oppression and brutality don't survive. They simply cannot."

The Egyptians for one, he says, are not going to rest until they have elections in September and contrary to the fears expressed by some, Terry does not think an Islamic takeover of the country is likely.

"This is not the 1970s and 1980s. The Muslims have not been leading this revolution, they have been at the back of the crowd and if anything, they have discredited themselves by being the last to pile on."

As for the church, things could not get any worse than they already have been under repressive regimes that have done their best to restrict the witness of the church.