Arab
Christians
Today there are 14 Million Christians in the Arab world
descendants of those who did not convert to nor embrace Islam. Palestine is
well known in the Bible and it is considered the cradle of
Christianity. There are several other Arab countries that capture
portions of the Old and New Testaments passages namely Lebanon, Jordan,
Egypt, Iraq and Syria. After the advent of Islam Christianity disappeared
completely in certain countries such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and the Arabian peninsula.
Distribution of the Arab Christian Populations
Most of the Arab Christians who live in the Middle East
are located in the following countries:
In total about 5-6 % of the Arab countries population
are Christians. It is important to note that Arabs are not all Muslims and Muslims are not
all Arabs. Some Christians who live in the Arab
world refuse to be considered as "Arabs". They take pride in
their heritage and trace their roots to their ancestors who inhabited the
land before the appearance of Islam. For example, Lebanese Christians take
pride in their ancient Phoenician roots. Egyptian Coptics trace their
roots to the ancient Egyptians under the Pharaohs dynasties. So the
Chaldeans and the Assyrians of Iraq who consider themselves to be the original
inhabitants and dwellers of present day Iraq..
Migration of Arab Christians
A lot of Arab Christians migrated from Lebanon, Syria,
Palestine and Iraq to Europe, West Africa, the American continent and
Australia. Christian emigration from the Middle East has increased because
of political and economic hardship (from Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil
war, from the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories, from Iraq since
the UN sanctions destroyed the economy) and because of Islamic
fundamentalist pressure.
Denominations of the Arab Christians
The Arab Christians belong to more than a dozen
different churches, the result of numerous conflicts and schisms since
Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman empire by
the emperor Constantine in 313 AD. Four separate churches evolved around
the capitals of the four ecclesiastical provinces:
-
Rome (Roman Catholic or Latin Church )
-
Constantinople (Greek Orthodox Church),
-
Antioch (Syrian Orthodox or Jacobite Church)
-
Alexandria (Coptic Church).
-
(the Armenian Church)
-
Nestorian Church in Syria and Mesopotamia
-
The Maronite Church
-
Chaldeans
-
Non-uniate Assyrians
Further divisions occurred in the fourth century (the
Armenian Church), the fifth century (the Nestorian Church in Syria and
Mesopotamia), the seventh century (the Maronite Church in Lebanon). With
the Crusades, and later when the Ottoman empire grew weaker and local
Christians sought sponsors in Europe, certain churches or parts of them
associated with Rome and became known as the Uniate Churches. They kept a
large degree of autonomy and retained their rites, customs (such as
marriage for priests) and liturgical language (Syriac, Greek).
This was the case with the Lebanese Maronites (however
some Maronites say their church never separated from Rome but only lost
contact). Later, in the 17th century, the Nestorians in Mesopotamia were
divided in Chaldeans affiliated with Rome and non-uniate Assyrians.
The Protestant Church in the
Arab World
In the 19th century protestant, missionaries - notably
American - followed in the footsteps of western Roman Catholic
missionaries, and began proselytizing in the Arab world. Their enterprise
was not very successful: conversion of Muslims was nearly impossible. The
only converts were members of other nominal Christian churches. But they
had nevertheless an important impact by creating educational institutions
such as the American universities in Beirut and Cairo which contributed to
the emergence of Arab nationalism. In its early stages these nationalist
Christians from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine played an important role in
the Arab national movement.
In the 19th century Christianity was reappeared as a
result of the presence in Sudan of Egyptian Coptic officials and traders
during the Egyptian-British Condominium. Missionaries, Catholics and
Protestants were allowed to work in the South and converted about 15 % of
the local animist population. Colonial conquests also led to the
reapparance of Christianity in the Maghreb, but without an impact on the
local Arab societies.
In Saudi Arabia, the
cradle of Islam, all Christian activities, even for the numerous foreign
workers, are strictly forbidden.
The Arabic Evangelical Community of the
Arab World
| 
Info For Christians
The Arab Christians
