Some Irony

Etain

Etain

Member
I read an article about Christianity in the Middle East,the last paragraph really struck me as being ironic.
But there is hope for Christianity in the Middle East. Of the countries mentioned in the report, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ? notably countries that are not roiled by conflict ? have seen growing Christian populations. The level of tolerance in the countries is questionable as public displays of religion other than Islam remain illegal in Saudi Arabia, but a surge in foreign workers has brought in growing numbers of Christians. The United Arab Emirates, where Christians have rights but cannot proselytize, has 40 churches today. That's a big jump from just 24 churches in 2005.
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http://www.ibtimes.com/middle-east-christians-flee-populations-syria-egypt-palestine-iraq-dwindle-amid-2246684
Pre-War Syria had a Christian population of 10% 2 million
Iraq about 1% or 300,000
Jordan down from 30% in 1950 to 6% now.
Lebanon still strong at 40% and a few million

yet the gulf states.
UAE around 12% with about 700,000
Qatar 8.5%
Bahrain 15% 367,683
Kuwait 650,000 around 15%
Saudi even has around 1.5 million

It's funny to think Gulf countries where almost all of the population was traditionally muslim are now the ones with the largest and growing population in the middle east
 
Very interesting post and stats, indeed very ironic, thanks for posting!

If you look at a country like the Qatar, with a population of just over 2 million, with Filipinos alone making up 200,000 of them, and those are majority Christian. So not shocked by these numbers, if anything, for Qatar at least, it is close to 10%.


ASHOOR
 
ASHOOR said:
Very interesting post and stats, indeed very ironic, thanks for posting!

If you look at a country like the Qatar, with a population of just over 2 million, with Filipinos alone making up 200,000 of them, and those are majority Christian. So not shocked by these numbers, if anything, for Qatar at least, it is close to 10%.


ASHOOR
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It made me really happy to read this. Sad of course that Christianity is struggling in communities where it has existed since the beginning,but still.

This is extremely interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Saudi_Arabia#Work

Like other nomadic herders worldwide, the ancestors of most Saudis did not develop the habits (so-called "work ethic"), skills, infrastructure, etc. of agricultural societies "that lead ultimately to present-day industrialisation".[59] As a consequence, "Saudis have rarely worked in the sense that other nationalities have worked. No product-based commercial economy existed until oil" was discovered
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I remember talking to a native Saudi who said he only worked about 10 hours a week if that.
The government there will make sure Saudi citizens have some employment,but they don't work themselves to the bone like most other people.
That labor is done by,of course, the migrant workers.
I don't imagine these people will be going anywhere anytime soon. So Saudi and the rest of the Gulf practically has a permanent non-Muslim population now.
 
Not just ironic, but very surprising.

Could they be counting Asian and European workers though?
 
mrzurnaci said:
so foreign christianity is growing while native christianity is dying?
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And foreign Christianity rising in one of the most strictest Islamic countries in the world.
 
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