Christianity in the Middle East

As Christians Orient, Oriental Christians or members of Eastern Christians are called pre-Reformation churches in the Middle East. These include, inter alia, Assyrian / Aramaic, Iranian, Turkish, Armenian, Ethiopian, Coptic and Arabic Christians.

At least until the year 1000 AD, the East Christians were still the majority in the Islamic empires. Today they form about one third of the population of Lebanon. In Egypt they are represented with population proportions of about 10%. In Jordan, they represent about 5 % of the population, slightly more in Syria and a little less in Palestine and Iraq. The non-Muslims on the territory of modern Turkey, who provided about 2.5 % of the population by 1927 are, for example, by the pogrom in Istanbul in the 1950s, through repression and emigration to a maximum of 0.3 % of the population then melted. In Iran, their number has greatly diminished since the Islamic Revolution. Today, they represent only 0.5 % of the population.

As early as the Byzantine era there were in the areas where Christians live today Orient, a majority of Christian denominations. Later, often there was a further fragmentation. The Roman Catholic Church tried to bind long and quite successful Christian groups in the Orient through church union in itself. The best known example are the Maronites and Chaldeans. Often, however, communities were split, as the Greek Orthodox community, which now also has a Greek Catholic branch.

Since the 19th century, especially American Protestant missionaries worked among the Oriental Christians and founded many small Protestant communities.

Demographics in modern times

By converting to Islam, emigration, wars and pogroms (eg genocide against the Arameans, Greeks persecution in the Ottoman Empire from 1914 to 1923 and the Armenians ) and demographic change has been the population of Christians in the region back constantly.

In 1900 he was still over 20 % in Egypt, 30 % in Syria and 50 % in Lebanon.

For 1970 are the statistics: Egypt 4.27 million = 13%, Lebanon 1.035 million = 50 %, Syria 0.591 million = 10 %, Iraq 0.295 million = 4%, Jordan 0.195 million = 10 %, Israel and Palestinian territories 0.15 million = 10 % of the Arab population.

In 2006, the Christian share in the Middle East is: Syria 10%, Egypt 7%, Lebanon almost 50%. To dwindle the chances that Christians are represented in the States. In addition, the advent of Islamists complicates the lives of religious minorities in the Middle East.

The Ursiedlungsgebiete the indigenous people of the Syro- Mesopotamian area are emptied rigorously for many years by Orient Christians. So the massacres and deportations in Turkey have claimed the lives of at the beginning of the last century, more than 500,000 locals. Most of the survivors have left their Ursiedlungsgebiete and settled on the south.

Christian Identity

Eastern Christians are often outsiders ( out of ignorance ) but also by their Muslim fellow citizens (for reasons of assimilation ) called Arabs, on the other hand, Arab Christians by Muslims are often viewed as non-Arabs. It is often " Arab " equated both Western and Islamic side of with "Islamic" or associated, which is incorrect. In the region there are not a homogeneous Christian-influenced ethnic group but different ethnic groups (Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Caucasians, Europeans, etc.). Therefore, many non-Arab Christians in the Orient describe themselves as Phoenicians ( in Lebanon ), the Syro -Aramaic -speaking Christians as Syrians, Assyrians or Chaldo - Assyrians, as the Copts in Egypt, or Armenians ( if they live outside of Armenia ) to to give to create a separate identity or designation. The names usually go back to the name of their ancient pre-Christian ancestors. The use of the term Phoenicians in modern times dates back to Michel Chiha and Yussef al - Sauda. The question of the cultural, linguistic, historical, political and religious identity is often very controversial in the Orient and shows the difficult problems in the Arab and Islamic world with the minorities.

The ancient peoples of Mesopotamia and Syria merged with each other. Their descendants find a strong connection to each other than the native population of the area. This is caused by the roots in their historical homeland, and the ties in the Syrian language. This rendered with very many traditions - even in the national churches and continued to grow in the consciousness of the Christians of the Syro- Mesopotamian Orient space. So has the Zughörigkeit to native, ostorientalischen churches not only an additional identity, but also a strengthening of national identity and their roots.

In Lebanon, coined an Eastern Christian identity, and has long spoken of an Eastern Christian society.

Role of the Orient Christians

The Oriental Christians were and are many motor of social and technological development in the Arab region. By multilingualism and experiences while abroad in the West, they have contributed to secularization, science and medicine, education, journalism and culture in general. The cultural mediator position of the East Syrian writer in the Islamic empire seemed deep to the Muslim teaching systems evolving. Significant Muslim philosophers had East Syriac teacher..