Arab Christians

**Arab Christians** are people who practice Christianity and speak Arabic or are from an Arabic-speaking country.

## Region

Most Christian Arabs live in the Middle East, where Islam is the most popular religion. The largest number of Arab Christians - around 9,500,000 - live in Egypt.

Many Arabs have emigrated from the Middle East in modern times. In some places like the Americas, a large number of these Arabs are Christians. In Brazil, there are more than 11.6 million Arabs; most of them are Christians.

### Origins

Arab Christians existed before Arab Muslims. Several Arab tribes became Christians starting in the first century. (The Prophet Muhammad created Islam during the 7th century.)

The Arab tribes who converted were the Nabateans (whose ancestors were Aramean) and the Ghassanids (who were of Qahtani origin and spoke both Yemeni-Arabic and Greek). They protected the southeastern parts of the Byzantine Empire in north Arabia.

### Persecution

During various periods in the history of the Islamic world, Arab Christians experienced brutal, humiliating persecution. This increased with the Muslim conquests of Christian countries after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

Often, Arab Christians were forced to convert to Islam if they could not pay an expensive tax known as the 'jizya'. Despite this, many Christians chose not to change their religion to Islam.

Muslims call Christians and Jews the "People of the Book".

## Persecution today

In the early 21st century, persecution of Christians in Arab countries increased.  In most countries they are required to obey Islamic "Shari'ah" law.  In some countries, notably Egypt, political approval is required for the construction or renovation of a church. This is not required for the construction of mosques.

Countries in the Arabian Gulf, most notably Saudi Arabia, do not allow people to build churches or practice Christianity in public. However, that is slowly changing in progressive areas like the UAE.

Coptic Christians in Egypt continue to face significant discrimination in the workplace and have a hard time reaching the upper echelons in universities, corporations, and government offices.

## Contributions

Arab Christians have made important contributions to the Arab world, and they still do.  Some of the best poets in past centuries were Arab Christians. Many Arab Christians were and are doctors, writers, government workers, and literature experts.

## Infobox (ethnic group)

- **group**: Arab Christians

- **image**: File:Bethlehem1.jpg
- **caption**: Christian Arab women in Bethlehem c. 1900
- **pop1**: 520,000–703,000

<small>(excluding 25,000–52,000 Maronites)</small>
- **pop2**: 350,000 <small>(excluding 1 million Maronites)</small>
- **pop3**: 221,000

<small>(also 1,000 Maronites)</small>
- **pop4**: 134,130

<small>(including 1,000 Copts and excluding 7,000 Maronites)</small>
- **region5**: State of Palestine, Palestine
- **pop5**: 38,000 <small>(excluding East Jerusalem)</small>–50,000
- **pop6**: 10,000
- **pop7**: 10,000–350,000
<small>(not including 9-15 million Copts and 5,000 Maronites)</small>
- **pop8**: 18,000
- **pop9**: 8,000–40,000.
- **pop10**: 250-400
- **langs**: Arabic language, Arabic, Hebrew language, Hebrew (within Israel), French language, French (within Lebanon and diaspora), English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese (diaspora)
- **rels**: Christianity:
Catholic
(Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern, Latin Church, Latin)
Greek Orthodox
(Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, Antioch, Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Alexandria)
Protestantism
- **footnotes**: [a]. excluding Copts
[b]. excluding Assyrian people, Assyrians
[c]. excluding Maronites
[d]. prior to Syrian civil war