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Revision as of 20:30, 30 April 2011 editVegaswikian (talk | contribs)270,510 edits Rename the page back to Arab Christians: Page moved← Previous edit Revision as of 13:06, 1 May 2011 edit undo175.41.171.29 (talk) 40-50 MILLION?! WOW... just... WOW: new sectionTag: repeating charactersNext edit →
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The article now needs a complete rewrite. I would suggest first moving parts to ] and cleaning up this article to meet its current scope. Seriously the infobox looks ridiculous here.--<span style="font-size: 14px; text-shadow: grey 0.1em 0.1em 0.1em;">''']''' <small>]</small></span> 19:46, 30 April 2011 (UTC) The article now needs a complete rewrite. I would suggest first moving parts to ] and cleaning up this article to meet its current scope. Seriously the infobox looks ridiculous here.--<span style="font-size: 14px; text-shadow: grey 0.1em 0.1em 0.1em;">''']''' <small>]</small></span> 19:46, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
:I agree, i think first of all lets get rid of any information on ethnic Greeks, Assyro-Chaldeans, Aramaeans/Syriacs, Armenians and other unrelated Christians, and merge it into "Christians in the Middle East". Later we should decide how we deal with Copts and Maronites, which are a complicated issue (perhaps we would make a subsection in article "Christian sects of Arab pan-ethnicity" or something like that to mention Copts and Maronites).] (]) 19:52, 30 April 2011 (UTC) :I agree, i think first of all lets get rid of any information on ethnic Greeks, Assyro-Chaldeans, Aramaeans/Syriacs, Armenians and other unrelated Christians, and merge it into "Christians in the Middle East". Later we should decide how we deal with Copts and Maronites, which are a complicated issue (perhaps we would make a subsection in article "Christian sects of Arab pan-ethnicity" or something like that to mention Copts and Maronites).] (]) 19:52, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

== 40-50 MILLION?! WOW... just... WOW ==

Now, I am fascinated by ethnic, religious and cultural minorities. Christianity in the Middle East, where the religion was born, is one of my keen interests, and I'm always at pains to remind people that not all Middle Easterners are Muslims and not all Muslims are Middle Easterners....BUT..... 40-50 MILLION "Arab Christians"???! Whomever came up with that figure - pass the joint PULleez!

First of all, numbering the Coptics as "Arab Christians" is of course contested. And '''6 million in SUDAN'''!!!??? The Arabized population of Sudan is Muslim, as is some of the non-Arabized nomads of Sudan. But the "Southern Sudanese" whom are Xtian, whom the Arabs deem "blacks", are certainly NOT Arabs - neither linguistically, culturally, genetically, or by any other criteria.

So there's 24 million reduced from the figure right there.

Then, there are not even 900,000 Christians in all of Iraq any more - let alone just Arab Iraq (outside Kurdistan), and let alone, Christians that are actually Arabs. The vast and overwhelming majority are Assyyrian or Chaldeans, who have their own language and ethnicity, followed by Armenians. Many of these people may speak Arabic (although very few as a first language), but they do not identify, nor are they officially counted as, Arabs.

I mean, I've read that pan-Arabism has been bad for minorities, but this is ridiculous!

I'm sure I could go through every nation listed here and find outrageous problems (e.g. 5,000 Arab Christians in... '''SOMALIA'''!!!!! WTF?! '''1.2 MILLION Arab Christians in SAUDI'''???????? - someone put that in as a prank, right?!)) but i can't be bothered myself. Will someone do it for me? Thanks! ] (]) 13:06, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

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Tariq Aziz

Tariq Aziz is not an Arab, he is Assyrian, he needs to be taken off this page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Assyrio (talkcontribs) 04:09, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

This Page Should Be Called "Christians In The Arab World"

I feel the title of this page is somewhat misleading, and open to misinterpretation and dispute. The term "Arab Christians" should only apply to those Christians who are ETHNIC ARABS and/or who consider themselves as such. It is pretty clear that Assyrians (Chaldo-Assyrians), Arameans/Syriacs, Armenians, Egyptian Copts and Lebanese Maronites as well as ethnic Kurds, Turcomans, Iranians, Turks and Berbers who adopted Christianity are Not Arabs! Some,like Egyptian Copts, Syrian Christians and Lebanese Maronites do speak Arabic, and some may regard themselves as Arab, but it seems that many,if not most do not. To avoid misunderstanding, controversy and dispute, perhaps the title of this page could be changed, and the article coult then go on to describe the different peoples and self designations?

Likewise "Arabic-speaking Christians" is also misleading. Assyrians (Chaldo-Assyrians), Armenians, some Arameans/Syriacs as well as Armenians and Berber, Kurdish, Turkish, Iranian and Turcoman Christians do not speak Arabic and thus should be excluded from the article completely on grounds of both ethnicity AND language.

The only nations where Christians seem to "almost" completely identify as Arabs seem to be Palestine, Jordan, Israel, Yemen and Oman, and even in these places not all are Arab or regard themselves as such.

Changing the article to "Christians In The Arab World" would allow the content to be broken down into sections both by nation,and/or by ethnic and cultural origin.

I wonder what people feel about this?

Agree. Although, maybe "Arab Lands" is better than "Arab World" (Either way, the term as used in this particular article should be clearly defined in the introduction). Since the term "Arab people" can't be clearly defined or agreed upon, neither can Christian Arabs. (see other's comments below)
How to title three topics in one article?
1. Arabic speaking Christians
2. Christians living in Arab lands
3. Arab Christian Diaspora
Also, how can the approx. 40-50 million in the info box be relevant if we don't know if it refers to Christians speaking Arabic OR living in Arab lands? Since the 40-50 seems to be a total including the DIASPORA it should be moved to the bottom and shown as a Total for numbers given in the list, otherwise readers may assume it means something else. 99.69.44.236 (talk) 19:10, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
You may be interested in the discussion at the end of this page Talk:Arab_Christians_and_Arabic-speaking_Christians#We_need_a_wikipedia_article_for_Christian_Arabs
There is an article for Christians in the Middle East and Christianity in Egypt, Christianity in Lebanon, Christianity in Iraq and so on. I don't feel another article of this kind would somehow contribute to wikipedia (by "Arab World" or "Arab lands" you mean "Christians in the Arab League countries"? Notice that "Christians in the Middle East" is a good summary of the region by itself, why also Arab World?). Certainly this page should be about the Middle Eastern ethnoeligious group Christian Arabs (or Arab Christians, which is the same), as it originally wasGreyshark09 (talk) 20:37, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Armenians?

If Copts, Syriacs, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Maronites are included in this article as Arabic-speaking Christians, why aren't Armenians? After all the Armenians are just as Arab as the aforementioned ethnicities. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.243.108.188 (talk) 06:12, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Syriacs should be excluded along with Armenians, but the others only have Arabic as their first language. FunkMonk (talk) 16:30, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
I agree that Syriacs, Armenians and Assyrians/Chaldeans cannot be considered Arabs or native Arabic-speakers by any stretch of the imagination. --λⲁⲛτερⲛιξ 16:45, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
When I say Syriac, it includes all the silly off-shoots, Chaldean/Assyrian, whatever. FunkMonk (talk) 16:52, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
Um I am one of the "silly off shoots" and we certainly don't consider ourselves Arabs. Since more than 95% of christians in iraq and big chunk of Christians in Syria belong to "silly off-shoots" then they should be also excluded. Also not all Lebanese Christians identify themselves as Arabs.
Also numbers of "Arab" Christians in some countries (especially Brazil) are highly exaggerated. you might want to check the official censuses before endorsing those figures.
I am temporarily putting the bias template on until these disputes are solved. Rafy talk 23:54, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
And yet again, I specifically said Syriac speakers should not be counted as Arabs. FunkMonk (talk) 05:16, 30 December 2010 (UTC)
Let's see, Clear Non-Arabs: Armenians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans; Unclear Identity: Coptic Egyptians; Arab-Identity Disputed by Some but many do identify as Arabs:: Maronites --Qvxz9173 (talk) 04:54, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

"When I say Syriac, it includes all the silly off-shoots"" - Actually, you will find that the term SYRIAC is itself a "silly offshoot" of the term ASSYRIAN! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.106.116.120 (talk) 12:54, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Copts

It seems that you are trying to isolate the Copts from the region and the arabs as much as possible, even you dont want to put Egyptian Arabic because of the word "Arabic" how funny is that. However i agree that some copts dont consider themselves as arabs but i dont see the need of mentioning it in the population column since it was mentioned more than 3 times in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexandrian10 (talkcontribs) 23:28, 24 December 2010 (UTC)

I can agree about the Masri vs. Egyptian Arabic piece, but I clearly disagree with the need to mention that Copts do not identify as Arabs in the population column. As you can see from Coptic identity, this is very much pertinent to the way Copts perceive themselves. As I mentioned on your talk page, other users agree with this point of view as well --λⲁⲛτερⲛιξ 23:51, 24 December 2010 (UTC)


Iraq

I'm tired of say up, not all Christians in Iraq are Assyrians. There are Christian Arabs descended from Christian tribes of Arabia. There Assyrians and Arabs. Can not become an article of dispute and fighting. There are the two ethnicities and should have a respect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 186.220.196.108 (talk) 03:12, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

The Lakmids Arabs who were Christians were in Mesopotamia before the rise of Islam, so many Iraqi Christians should be Arabs. There are definitely Arabs who are Christians in Iraq. In addition, many Arabs who are also Christians have moved from neighboring countries such as Jordan and Syria in the past. --Qvxz9173 (talk) 05:01, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
True, but the vast majority of Christians in Iraq belong to four churches: Chaldean, Assyrian, Syriac Catholic and Syriac Orthodox, Then the Armenian churches. Only a small minority belong to "traditionally Arab" Churches. Most Arabs in Iraq and Syria converted to Islam, just like the ones in the Arab peninsula as far as I know. Rafy talk 13:44, 23 January 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rafy (talkcontribs)
The thing is, what church you belong to does not define your ethnicity. I belong to the Roman/Latin Church, but that does not make me Roman or Latin. There are Arabs who belong to the Greek Orthodox or Syriac Catholic Church, but that does not change their ethnicity to Greek or Syriac (which is a language--a dialect of Aramaic--not an ethnic group). There are definitely Arabs who are Christian, because I am one, and I know hundreds both inside my large family and outside. There are plenty of Arabs who are Christians in Syria, and probably in Iraq too, not all of them converted. (Also see here for a Syriac Catholic-Chaldean Catholic who considers themself Arab ) --Qvxz9173 (talk) 19:09, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
Actually what happened is that in Syriac Christianity (Maronites being an exclusion here), one's denomination has become synonymous with his ethnic identity. For example a Muslim cannot convert to Syriac Orthodoxy because he will simply never belong to the community, while on the other hand a Syriac Orthodox who converts to Islam (or any other non-Syriac denomination in that matter), will simply loose his previous ethnic identity as well. I have read somewhere that this has happened after Timur lane's massacres which nearly exterminated Syriac Christianity east of the Euphrates, people then became more introvert and developed this unique identity. Very similar to Jews I believe. Rafy talk 22:01, 23 January 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rafy (talkcontribs)

The fact is that most ARAB Christians in Iraq before the Arab Islamic conquest of the 7th Century AD converted to Islam after thier Arab brothers conquered the region. Befor the Islamic conquest Arabs were a minority in Iraq anyway. The vast majority of Christians in Iraq were actually native Aramaic speaking Mesopotamians/Assyrians, and they still are. There are not any Arab members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East or Syriac Orthodox church in Iraq, Iran, Turkey or North East Syria. Notably, the Christian traditions in Iraq have always been in the eastern Aramaic/Syriac language, not Arabic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.106.116.120 (talk) 16:13, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

I would certainly dispute the notion that members of the Chaldean Catholic Church regard themselves as Arabs. They are actually the same people as the Assyrians, descendants of the ancient Mesopotamians. Arab speaking does not = Arab ethnicity either, otherwise we would have to regard Jamaicans as Englishmen! Ethnic Arab Christians in Iraq are few and far between, and those that do exist tend to be converts in the south who were turned to Protestantism by American and European missionaries in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Arabs were a non native immigrant community in Mesopotamia before the Arab/Islamic conquest. After that conquest those Arabs who were Christian (and they were always a minority within the Christian population anyway) switched to the new Islamic faith of their brethren. Those Eastern Aramaic speaking native Mesopotamians were more resistant, and the Christian population is largely made up of these people today. It is noteworthy that members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church and Syriac Orthodox Church conduct sermons in theier native ARAMAIC/SYRIAC and NOT Arabic, most have Assyrian/Mesopotamian/Aramaic names, and the Iraqi Government designates them as Chaldo-Assyrians, recognising a distinct ethnicity, nor do members of these churches consider themselves as Arab, but as native Mesopotamians/Assyrians.

Majority christians of cities are ARAB CHRISTIANS!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.120.245.243 (talk) 09:01, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Clear non-Arabs should not be covered in this article

This article is supposed to be about Arabs who are Christians. It should NOT include people of other ethnic groups who are clearly not Arab. The only reason it talks about "Arabic-speaking Christians" is because some wikipedians here dispute the Arab identity of certain populations and certain individuals. Therefore, individuals and ethnic groups that are clearly not Arab shouldn't even be mentioned in this article. Only those with disputed Arab identity should be included. Therefore, this article should not include CLEAR non-Arabs such as Armenians and Assyrians. In addition, this article FALSILY suggests that Arab Christians who are really Arabs by ethnicity aren't the majority. --Qvxz9173 (talk) 04:43, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Well the real problem is , a category that generalizes all christians in what is now the Arab league as Arab Christians. It even includes European Christian in north Africa. I would sort it but it's just too messy there. Rafy talk 13:51, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
However we got here, the article's subject is now "Arab Christians and Arabic-speaking Christians" and that does indeed quite explicitly include people of ethnic groups other than Arab. I really don't think we can impose a secret rule on the article by some agreement on the talk pages that non-Arabs should be excluded; not only would it be most confusing to the reader but it would set us up for yet more and even worse battles about who should and shouldn't be included.
Still, the question of what article we would like to have here and how it should be titled is a valid one; it would be so helpful to current and future editors, let alone readers, if we could find a generally acceptable scope and title. Could we approach it by putting the readers first? In other words, what do you think people lighting on this article are trying to find out about or interested in? Is it specifically the history and current situation of Christians who are Arabs, or speak Arabic (as first or as second language?), or who live in nominally Arab countries (and there's a problem of definition), or is it often something much more general? For this English-language Wkipedia, readers may arrive quite unaware of distinctions between Arab and non-Arab peoples in "that part of the world" and simply be interested in the situation of Christians "over there". If only there was a simple geographical term that clearly encompassed "there" I'd recommend we use that, but "Middle East" is problematic and "South-west Asia" excludes Egypt. "Christians in South-West Asia and Egypt" is clumsy but it might actually encompass the area the curious reader's thinking of. Can we do better? Or do we really have to delineate it by language and ethnicity? NebY (talk) 20:55, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
One way we could narrow it down (and I actually thought this was the scope of the article already) would be to only include people who speak Arabic as their first language. This would exclude Christians who just happen to speak Arabic as a secondary language, such as Europeans who have learned it, or minorities like Syriacs who have their own primary languages. And yes, unlike what some here desperately want, Copts and other Egyptians would still be included, since they do not have any first language other than Arabic. And by the way, the reason why the scope of the article is so ambiguous is that there is no way we can know what percentage of for example Maronites or Copts identify as Arabs, therefore they have to be included as a whole since it is known that some do in fact identify as such, and they do fit several of the criteria of "what an Arab is", mainly that Arabic is their first language and that they live in the "Arab world". It can not be denied that they have adopted aspects of Arab culture as well. FunkMonk (talk) 21:01, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
I think that the most controversial part is the infobox. Since there is no clear definition of who is an "Arab Christians" or an "Arab Speaking Christians", I suggest that the ambiguity reflect on the article as well. Rafy talk 21:46, 23 January 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rafy (talkcontribs)

Statistics in Infobox

I'm puzzled by the new statistics in the info box. Just to take the first example, the figure of 7,892,000 Christians in Egypt seems to be expressed with great precision and yet is much lower than that given here previously, elsewhere in the article.or in the article's references. Can anyone point to a basis for these figures? (I will now put this question on the editor's talkpage, inviting participation here). NebY (talk) 14:04, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

We need a wikipedia article for Christian Arabs

What a mess this article has become. An article originally about Christian Arabs is slowly being transformed into an article about Middle East Christians of numerous ethnicities. What about Christian Arabs! There are NO wiki articles for Christian Arabs. There should be another wikipedia article specifically covering Christian Arabs, because I doubt that this article will reverse direction. --Qvxz9173 (talk) 02:34, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

I completely agree, somehow this article turned from an article on "Arab Christians" to an article on "Christianity in the Middle East". Instead of bringing clear info, this article is adding to confusion between various ethnic groups in the Middle East, who happen to practice Christianity (Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Copts etc). There are already articles on each ethnoreligeous group, and "Christian Arabs" deserve a full article of their own. And finally what is "Arabic speaking Christians"? Is there an article saying "England Christians and English speaking Christians" or "Spanish Christians and Spanish speaking Christians"? It doesn't make sense to group people by language, which is the most widespread language in the Middle East and North Africa (rediculously it would inlcude any Christian student who learned Arabic in US and Europe).
This article should be renamed and dedicated to Christian Arabs alone, not Christian Assyrians, Maronites, Copts and Christian Armenians who happen to speak Arabic.Greyshark09 (talk) 18:08, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
You may be interested in the current discussion higher up on this page Talk:Arab_Christians_and_Arabic-speaking_Christians#This_Page_Should_Be_Called_.22Christians_In_The_Arab_World.22 NebY (talk) 20:21, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
The problem here is that you can't really draw a line between who is Arab and who is not. The first question would be to define "Who's an Arab?" are we talking about a "ethnic" Arabs like Ghassanids and Lakhmids (Greek Orthodoxes and Greek Catholics mostly in Jordan), or the "Hellenised" and "Latinised" population who later adopted Arab culture early on (Greek Orthodoxes and Greek Catholics and Latin Catholics in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan). Or should we instead talk about "Arab Christians" as Arab governments view them (Including those mentioned in addition to Copts, Armenians, Assyrians, Maronites... etc.).
In order to do this a clear consensus is needed.--Rafy talk 20:51, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
We should not rely on political ideas, but on objective and academic views, as much as possible. Arab nationalists (Pan-arabists) tend to call everyone in the Middle East with an "Arab" prefix (like "Arab Assyrians" or "Arab Jews"), which is generally not accepted by the subjects themselves, and not supported by academic views. Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians/Chaldeans, Syriacs, Copts have a specific cultural and even genetic signatures, differing them from Arabs as a whole and Arab Christians, like Ghassanids and Lakhmids, as well. Arab Christians like Ghassanids (including Palestinian Christian Arabs), Lakhmids and similar Arab Christian tribes should be described in this article, not other ethnicities, who are called ideologically "Arab" by some Pan-Arabists - wikipedia is not a podium for politics (WP:NOT).Greyshark09 (talk) 21:06, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Rename the page back to Arab Christians

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: page moved. Vegaswikian (talk) 20:30, 30 April 2011 (UTC)



This article turned from an article on "Arab Christians" to an article on "Christianity in the Middle East". Instead of bringing clear information on ethnic Arabs (or panethnic, which means arabidized) of Christian religion, this article is adding to confusion between various ethnic groups in the Middle East, who happen to practice Christianity and speak Arabic (Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Arabs and others). There are already articles on each ethnoreligeous group like Assyrian Christians, Armenian diaspora in the Middle East and "Christian Arabs" deserve a full article of their own community. Certainly there is a problem to define Maronites and Copts, but "Arabic speaking Christians" title is just adding to confusion. There is no article saying "England Christians and English speaking Christians" or "Spanish Christians and Spanish speaking Christians". Hence it doesn't make sense to group people by language, which is the most widespread language in the Middle East and North Africa (rediculously it would inlcude any Christian student who learned Arabic in US and Europe). Please vote Support in favor of this move or Oppose if you are against (please provide a reason). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Greyshark09 (talkcontribs) 16:31, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

The fact that most of this article overlaps "Christianity in the Middle East" is one of the reasons to give it a more specific page name and prevent confusion of the term "Middle Eastern Christian"/"Arabic speaking Christian" with Arab Christian (ethnic or panethnic Arab identity person who practices Christianity - i.e. Ghassanids, Lakhmids, Palestinian Christians and to some degree Maronites and Copts, certainly not Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Arameans).Greyshark09 (talk) 18:52, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
You are correct, the page name "Arab Christians" was a settled consensus and renamed so in 2009, but it was renamed to current title in 2010 (i'm not sure whether it was discussed prior to renaming).Greyshark09 (talk) 18:52, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
  • Support the proposal. The current title is an abomination that allows for content creep outside what the scope of the article should be. Move the article back and sort out precisely who is an Arab Christian here on the talk page. —  AjaxSmack  02:22, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
  • Support --Smart30 (talk) 05:12, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
  • Suppport - the only reason this was changed was to appease a now banned user (who has repeatedly used sockpuppets) who would routinely remove any mention of any Egyptian from this article, claiming to speak for all Egyptian Christians when he or she said that Copts are not Arabs. As that is a plainly absurd thing to do, and something that should not have been allowed to force the name change back then, I support moving this back to a more sensible name. nableezy - 14:27, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
Well, I would also stand against the inclusion of Copts or Maronites within the "Christian Arab" scope. A separate article should contain information of historic Christian Arabs such as the Lakhmids and Ghassanids and those in Bahrain, Yemen and Nijran regions as well as the embrace of Arab identity by some Christians of the Middle East during the last century.--Rafy talk 16:08, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
Rafy, first of all let's concentrate on the main issue - renaming to "Arab Christians", which would make this article more specific and clear. Later let's define exactly who are "Arab Christians". By removing "Arabic speaking Christians", we would at least stop the confusion between ethnic (or pan-ethnic) Arabs and Arabic speaking Greeks, Armenians and Assyro-Chaldeans who live in Arab countries. So, first thing first.Greyshark09 (talk) 17:11, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
  • Support. Arab Christians or Christian Arabs, doesn't matter to me which. About who is covered by that descriptor, it can be determined using reliable sources. There are some Maronites that do identify as Arab, just as there are some Copts who do too. We can talk about those people here, while also noting the views of other members of their communities who do not identify as Arab. The key is using reliable secondary sources and giving fair space to all significant viewpoints on the issue. Tiamut 17:35, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Complete rewrite

The article now needs a complete rewrite. I would suggest first moving parts to Christianity in the Middle East and cleaning up this article to meet its current scope. Seriously the infobox looks ridiculous here.--Rafy talk 19:46, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

I agree, i think first of all lets get rid of any information on ethnic Greeks, Assyro-Chaldeans, Aramaeans/Syriacs, Armenians and other unrelated Christians, and merge it into "Christians in the Middle East". Later we should decide how we deal with Copts and Maronites, which are a complicated issue (perhaps we would make a subsection in article "Christian sects of Arab pan-ethnicity" or something like that to mention Copts and Maronites).Greyshark09 (talk) 19:52, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

40-50 MILLION?! WOW... just... WOW

Now, I am fascinated by ethnic, religious and cultural minorities. Christianity in the Middle East, where the religion was born, is one of my keen interests, and I'm always at pains to remind people that not all Middle Easterners are Muslims and not all Muslims are Middle Easterners....BUT..... 40-50 MILLION "Arab Christians"???! Whomever came up with that figure - pass the joint PULleez!

First of all, numbering the Coptics as "Arab Christians" is of course contested. And 6 million in SUDAN!!!??? The Arabized population of Sudan is Muslim, as is some of the non-Arabized nomads of Sudan. But the "Southern Sudanese" whom are Xtian, whom the Arabs deem "blacks", are certainly NOT Arabs - neither linguistically, culturally, genetically, or by any other criteria.

So there's 24 million reduced from the figure right there.

Then, there are not even 900,000 Christians in all of Iraq any more - let alone just Arab Iraq (outside Kurdistan), and let alone, Christians that are actually Arabs. The vast and overwhelming majority are Assyyrian or Chaldeans, who have their own language and ethnicity, followed by Armenians. Many of these people may speak Arabic (although very few as a first language), but they do not identify, nor are they officially counted as, Arabs.

I mean, I've read that pan-Arabism has been bad for minorities, but this is ridiculous!

I'm sure I could go through every nation listed here and find outrageous problems (e.g. 5,000 Arab Christians in... SOMALIA!!!!! WTF?! 1.2 MILLION Arab Christians in SAUDI???????? - someone put that in as a prank, right?!)) but i can't be bothered myself. Will someone do it for me? Thanks! 175.41.171.29 (talk) 13:06, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

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