Christians in the Arab World
By: Hadi A.
Tags: Syria, Christianity, Iraq, Middle East, Palestine

Christians in the Arab World are facing varying levels of persecution, some communities are on the brink of extinction while others are just fine.

Generally speaking, the best area for Arab Christians is the Levant, where relatively little persecution takes place.

The worst areas are Libya, Egypt, and Iraq.

Some examples:

Lebanon

In Lebanon, Christians face no persecution at all. They number around 2,500,000, which is 40–45% of the population (no census since 1932, so this is from church records, polling stations, etc.), are guaranteed half the seats in parliament, and practice Christianity with no limits whatsoever.

Lebanese parliament, half the seats are for Christians of various denominations.

Many, if not all Christian holidays are holidays in Lebanon, such as Christmas, Easter, and the Feast of the Assumption. Conversion to Christianity is fully legal, and the President of Lebanon is required by law to be Maronite Catholic.

Christmas in Lebanon is a national holiday

Syria

Before the war, there were 2–3,000,000 Christians in Syria, or 10–15% of the population. They were treated quite well under Assad and allowed to freely practice their religion, for example, Christian civil servants are entitled to Sunday mornings off to attend church. They are also well represented in the political system; for example, the current Speaker of Parliament is Syriac Orthodox.

Hammouda Sabagh, Speaker of Parliament in Syria

During the war, Christians were badly affected and fled alongside their fellow Muslim Syrians, and sadly, the horrifying reign of ISIS really didn’t help the Christians of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, as they were killed and ethnically cleansed.

Armenian Catholic Church of Raqqa, desecrated by ISIS

In “rebel” (terrorist) held areas of Syria such as Idlib, Christians are facing persecution, but in places where Assad is in control, like Homs, Latakia, and Haleb, Christians are not persecuted and are even returning after they fled abroad.

Christmas in liberated Haleb, after it was freed from the “moderate” “rebels”

Israel & Palestine

Israel and Palestine have a combined Christian population of 200–250,000, which is 1.5–2% of the total population, and they are the areas in the Levant where Christians face the greatest degree of persecution, apart from terrorist-held Syria.

Church demolished by Israel, Occupied East Jerusalem

The situation is quite complex, but essentially, Palestinian Christians are oppressed by Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which oppresses all Palestinians, but disproportionately Christians, since the 2 hardest-hit cities, Bethlehem and Ramallah, hold the majority of Palestine’s Christian population, and accordingly, Christian emigration rates are higher. This is mostly due to the West Bank wall, which cuts off people from their property and puts cities under economic siege.

West Bank wall

Minor bureaucratic mistreatment by the PA/some harassment in Palestinian society isn’t helping either, but in poll after poll, the majority of Palestinian Christians reported the reason for their exodus being none other than Israel, rather than the PA or anything else.

Jordan

Jordan’s Christians are quite well-off. They are 250–400,000 in number, or about 2.5–4% of the population, are thoroughly integrated into all parts of society, practice Christianity freely, hold 9/130 seats in Jordan’s parliament, and have their holidays such as Christmas as national holidays.

Christmas in Amman, Jordan’s capital

While conversion to Christianity is not legal, there really aren’t any other issues faced by the Jordanian Christian community.

Libya

In Libya, there are about 110,000 Christians or roughly 1–2% of the population. While Gaddafi didn’t really treat them very well, converting churches into mosques, it was infinitely better under him compared to the situation of today.

Tripoli Cathedral, converted into a mosque

Right now, terrorists like ISIS and al-Qaeda hold considerable influence in Libya, and Christians are really paying the price for their faith. The beheading of 21 Coptic men in 2015 really shows what Libyan Christians have to put up with on a day-to-day basis, as there is no security in Libya, and attacks happen often.

Effigy of Coptic martyrs from 2015

Egypt

While they don’t have it nearly as bad as Libya’s Christians, Egypt’s Coptic Christians really aren’t doing so well.

Even though there are 5–25,000,000 of them, or 5–25% of Egypt’s population, a sizable portion, this hasn’t lessened the persecution they face. A lot of discrimination, both societal and legal, takes place, and church bombings take place far too often, one of which happened in Alexandria in 2017, on Palm Sunday. Multiple Copts were killed, sadly.

The aftermath of Palm Sunday bombings in Egypt

Coptic women are also frequently kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam, and only 3% of places of worship in Egypt are churches. Thousands leave Egypt each year, and this trend, sadly, does not appear to be letting up.

Copts fleeing Sinai after terror attacks

Iraq

Iraq’s Christian community’s current demographics are difficult to ascertain, as due to lack of a recent census, no official numbers exist. Estimates place the numbers at 150,000-500,000 or 0.5–1% of the population. Before the 2003 war and the rise of ISIS, there were about 1.5 million Iraqi Christians, or around 6% of the population.

Ninawa Plains, the Assyrian homeland in Iraq

It’s worth mentioning at this point that the majority of Iraqi Christians are not Arabs, but Assyrians. They have long wished for autonomy/independence, neither of which have taken place to this day. Under Ba’athist rule in Iraq, they were allowed to practice their religion, but Saddam tried to Arabize them, and snuff out Assyrian culture.

In Ba’athist Iraq, it really didn’t matter what religion you were (unless you were Jewish, but that’s a story for another time), so Iraqi Christians who abandoned their Assyrian culture were well integrated. In fact, the Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Tariq Aziz, was an Arabized Iraqi Christian.

Tariq Aziz, Arabized Iraqi Christian

However, after the 2003 invasion and subsequent security vacuum/rise of ISIS, all this changed.

Many bombings on churches, murders, etc. took place against the Iraqi Christian community at random times, and once ISIS took control of areas with Christian populations, they would destroy churches, behead Christians, make them pay jizya, paint the letter “nun” on their doors (earmarking their houses for attack), and so on. The list of ISIS’ atrocities against Iraq’s Christians (and others) goes on and on, and, if I tried to put everything in this answer, I’d die of old age before I completed it.

The so-called “mark of the Nazarene”, painted by ISIS on Christian property in Mosul

Finally, after ISIS was pushed out, many Christians began returning to their towns & villages, rebuilding them, and restarting their lives. In spite of this, the situation is still quite bad, and a lot of attacks, murders, bureaucratic and societal discrimination continue to plague the Iraqi Christian community, even to this day.

The aftermath of the Baghdad Church massacre

So there you have it. In (most of) Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, Christians are generally fine, whereas Israeli/Palestinian, Libyan, Egyptian and Iraqi Christians are paying for their faith. We can only hope the situation improves.