Is Every Arab a Muslim and Every Muslim an Arab?
Many people assume that Arab and Muslim and the Middle East are interchangeable terms. And no wonder: The Qur’an is written in Arabic — which some believe to be “the language of paradise” and is spoken across the Middle East.
Yes, most Arabs are Muslim — approximately 87% of the population of the 22 nations belonging to the Arab League: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Most people use the term Middle East to identify those traditional Arab countries plus Iran, Israel, and sometimes Turkey.
But those countries also contain millions of Christian Arabs and Jewish Arabs. So, no: Not every Arab is a Muslim.
As a side note, Arabic is the official or co-official language in 25 different countries. That includes the 22 Arab League nations plus Chad, Eritrea, and Tanzania. However, Arabic-speakers live scattered throughout the world, with more than 25 dialects. Brother Rachid helped translate the Bible into Moroccan Arabic (also known as Darija) to make it clearest to the more than 30 million who speak Darija in Morocco and elsewhere.
But is every Muslim an Arab?
Actually, only 20% of Muslims worldwide speak Arabic, and the largest percentage do not even live in the Middle East. Thus, the Muslim world is far larger than the Arabic world. In fact, according to the website Encountering Islam, Muslims fall into more then 2,300 different language or ethnic subgroups, although many will learn to read Arabic in order to read the Qur’an in its original language (because religious officials view all translations as “interpretations” and thus open to error).
Consider that the largest Muslim countries by population are:
- Indonesia— 231 million Muslims (87.2% of total population)
- Pakistan — 212.3 million Muslims (96.5%)
- India — 200 million Muslims (14.2%)
Indonesians, Pakistanis, and Indians are not Arabs.
Muslims live in many other non-Arabic-speaking countries as well, including Afghanistan (99.6% of its population), Ethiopia (33.9%), Singapore (14.7%), and Russia (13.5%). In the U.S, about 1.1% of the country practices Islam, according to the Pew Research Center. Most emigrated from other countries; yet a full 42% were born here.
So while most of those living in Arab countries are Muslim, the Muslim world is far larger. All Muslims, in every country, are in need of hearing the life-giving message of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Pray for all Muslims to be seeking the truth so fervently that they will not give up. Join Arabic Media Ministries in reaching out to all Arabic-speaking Muslims worldwide.
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Sources: “Encountering the World of Islam,” encounteringislam.org; “Muslim Population by Country 2021,” worldpopulationreview.com; “New estimates show U.S. Muslim population continues to grow” by Besher Mohamed, Pew Research Center, Jan. 3, 2018; “Muslims in America,” Pew Research Center, April 17, 2018.