Christians of the Arab and Islamic World Return to NAAJA Web site | Return to Arab American Resource Web Site | Email Hanania One of the most misunderstood religions in the world is not Islam but Christianity, especially among Christians themselves and particularly in the West. The Mainstream American media has helped to feed this misunderstanding by lumping Middle East Christians into the heart of their coverage of Islam. The words "Arab" and "Muslim" are often used interchangeably in news media reports. As a result, many Americans do not associate the Christian religion with Arabs or in particular with Palestinians, the people of the land where Christianity actually rose. Christians in the Middle East are often portrayed as a "political component" of the Middle East conflict rather than as a group identity or a people. It is true that the number of Christians in the Middle East have fallen significantly, but this is often exaggerated by percentages used to represent Arab Christians in the Islamic World where the number of Muslims continues to increase. Politics plays a significant role in coverage of Christian Arabs. They face many challenges both in and out of the Middle East and Islamic Worlds and in the West: - Many Muslims discourage the identification of Arabs as being "Christian and Muslim" and prefer the phrase "Arabs and Muslims" to describe the population. - Christians in the Palestine-Israel conflict are targeted by both sides, Muslims and Israelis, and both sides deny that persecution of Christians occurs. Ironically, Christians are only addressed by Israel in the context of political attacks from Israeli extremists. Israel's media also distorts the Christian-Muslim relationship, constantly reporting on incidents where Muslims allegedly attack Christian Arabs and detail incidents of Muslim discrimination against Christians. But the Israeli media almost always ignores or censors coverage of Jewish bigotry and discrimination against Christians and the bigger inherent discrimination of the policies of the State of Israel against all non-Jews, including and especially the smaller Christian minority. Politically motivated sites like "Honest Reporting", "Jihad Watch", "Front Page Mag", "MEMRI" and even "CAMERA" often publish viciously anti-Christian hate articles using the incidents of Christian-Muslim tension as a political attack against the Arab World, while ignoring incidents of Israel's persecution of Palestinian Christians. - Christians from the Middle East are often shunned in the West where the dominate Church is non-Middle Eastern; they are often grouped among coverage of Muslims, rather than being given a separate identity. We see a rise in "dialogue groups" that partner Christians, Muslims and Jews, yet the Christian Arabs who have their own challenges and face intense discrimination are excluded. - Christians from the Middle East also suffer fromt he "Arab syndrome." That is, while Arabs often break down into national identity and rivalry (there are 22 Arab countries and more than 100 Arab sects or distinguishable sub-ethnic groups), Arab Christians also find themselves separating on the basis of "religion nationality." Lebanese Christians (Maronite Catholic) and Palestinian Christians (Orthodox and Melkite) do not organize together, for example. Egyptian Christians (Coptics) also do not associate with other Middle East Christians. And, there is a misperception that Christians are a small minority in Western countries. In the United States, for example, there are about 4.5 million Arabs and the majority, 2.5 million or more are Christian. There are more than 7 million Muslims in the United States and Arab Muslims only represent about 22 percent of that number, just under 2 million, which correlates to the analysis of the 4.5 million estimate. Ironically, despite the incongruous coverage, Christian Arabs and Muslims Arabs maintain excellent relations and often work side-by-side on many issues in the Middle East and in the West. These and other topics are not explored in the mains stream news medias, neither here int he United States nor in the media of the Middle East. The only time Christian Arabs are even acknowledged is around their holidays which often shadow Western Christian holidays. (For example, this year, Orthodox Christian Easter begins with Palm Sunday many weeks after traditional Palm Sunday in the Christian West, on Sunday April 20, followed by Easter on April 27.) Many stories will be written about Orthodox Easter services, but very few will delve into the lives, customs and challenges facing Middle East Christians. ### |
Selected resources on a - Christian Arab Organization, a web site that focuses on the challenges facing Christian Arabs in the Middle East and West. Click to view. b - The Christian Arab Heritage, an essay by Fr. Labib Kotbi addressing the challenges and customs of the Christian Arabs. Click to view. c - A Christian Arab perspective on Ramadan: an essay exploring the complex relations between Arab Muslims and Arab Christians, a subject that is taboo and not discussed in the Arab oro Islamic World. Click to view. d - Christians of Dearborn Michigan protest abuses against Christians in the MIddle East both by Arabs and Israelis. Click to view. Web sites: International Maronite Foundation (Mainly Lebanese) Coptic Orthodox Churches (Mainly Egyptian) Antiochian Orthodox Church (Mainly Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian) Assyrian Christians (They do not consider themselves to be Arab by culture, but they live in the Arab World, speak Aramaic and also Arabic, and are found mainly in Iraq) RECENT GOOGLE NEWS RSS FEED
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