Arab identity

Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity, and pre-dates the spread of Islam, with historically attested Arab Christian kingdoms and Arab Jewish tribes. Today, however, most Arabs are Muslim, with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity, but also Druze and Baha'i.

Arabs are generally Sunni, Shia or Sufi Muslims, but currently, 7.1 percent to 10 percent of Arabs are Arab Christians. This figure includes only Christians whose primary community language is today a variety of Arabic, and who identify as Arab.

Arab ethnic identity does not include Christian, Jewish and other ethnic groups that retain non-Arabic languages and/or identities within the expanded Arab World. These include the Jews, Samaritans, Assyrian people of Iraq, north east Syria, north west Iran and south east Turkey, the Syriac Christians of western Syria, Armenians around the entire Near East, and Mandaeans in Iraq and Iran—though many of these peoples speak Arabic as a first or second language. In addition, Copts and Maronites espouse an ancient Egyptian and Phoenician identity respectively, rather than an Arab one.

Additionally, a number of other indigenous peoples living within what is considered the Arab World are equally non-Arab, even if they are ethnic groups which predominantly consist of adherents of Islam. These include ethnic groups such as Berbers, Kurds, Turks, Persians/Iranians, Azeris, Yezidis, Circassians, Shabaks, Turcomans, Romani, Chechens, Kawliya, Mhallami. Nor does Arab include migrant groups resident in the Arab World, even if they are largely of the Muslim faith, including migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

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