Why are there so many Christians in Lebanon and Iraq and other Arab Countries?

Since this is not a private (password protected) forum, may I start a thread?

1) My main question is, How did they get to be so many Christians in Lebanon?

2) How they get to be numerous Christians in the Arab world like the Copts in Egypt.

Isn't being a Christian a death sentence in countries under Shariah Law, how are they tolerated, nevertheless not well.

As I understand it, these communities have been in the Middle East since before the dawn of Islam.

Shariah Law does not call for the death, but rather the segregation, taxation and eventual conversion of Dhimmi (a.k.a. non-muslim communities). As such, a lot of these Christian communities were allowed to persist even after their territories were conquered.

That isn't to say there were no adherents to the "convert or die" doctrine.

The Answer is quite simple my friend- God is saving souls everywhere even in places where you will be killed for being saved. God is no respecter of persons he loves everyone and desires all to be saved the Jews and the gentiles the spiritual jews[Christians] and the spiritual gentiles[ The unsaved]

Admittedly, I have a lot of ignorance and misconceptions. Thanks American's, can I hear from Arab Christians..

I don't know much on the statistics and the fact of which region highly practices Sharia Law, but yes there are Christians within those nations despite how many are likely Muslim dominated. You can only imagine the amount of people who are 'in the closet' unbelievers for when it comes to Islam, but fear of death because it's punishable by death in some regions.

Thanks, JustAnotherUser, and all!

Some may not know who Danny Thomas was, but he was from Lebanon and a Christian who made it big in the first decade or more of Television's invention; I think he was Catholic.

correct. he was not a christian. as far as i know, he never became a christian. (never was saved, as far as known)

This is not correct. @Desdichad has it right. There has always been christian and other minority religious communities in these regions where islam is now dominant, and they continue to pass down their religions to the new generations. That's why they are as many as the OP indicates.

Hmmmm we don't have Shariah Law in Lebanon and Lebanon is Christian country, our president should only be Christian.

because alot of people in other nations/countries are being converted to christianity..

I think people tend to forget that Christianity started in the Eastern world -- it's an Eastern religion, and the second largest in the Middle Eastern region after Islam. Christians have existed in northern India, southern China, Nepal, Kashmir, Israel, Iraq, and everything in between Western Europe and the Eastern coast of India, and from India's most southerly point to Inner Mongolia in massive numbers throughout history.

The religion also spread into Africa and of course to America -- North and South.

Nowadays, the biggest concentrations of Christianity relative to population size are in eastern Europe, central and southern Africa, Mexico and South America, Italy, Ireland and the Philippines. Although the USA has the biggest single Christian population, these countries represent the highest density of Christianity.

Christianity has been the largest world religion for centuries.

Being a catholic, baptist, Lutheran, Quaker, etc does not mean you are SAVED. It only means that you attended one of those denominations. You can attend a yearly carnival and/or circus for all of your life, but that does not make you a clown. Hitler was 'catholic' in his younger days......catch my drift?

I agree. But Muslims believe that when their messiah, the Mahdi, comes, "he will abolish jizjah". Their only choice is to either convert or be killed then (or run if you can).

Let me try to give an answer, although I am not an Egyptian or Lebanese citizen.

The questions shall be raised I think shall be like this: How come the Muslims become majority in Lebanon and Egypt when Christianity, Jews, Zoroastrians and other sects of beliefs were there way before muhammad was even born? The answer is easy, by the holy jihad sanctioned by allah and muhammad, to fight them until they surrender or pay jizya and feeling themselves subdued.

Now how are they tolerated under Egyptian and Lebanese law? The only answer to that is because Egypt and Lebanon does not implement the true and complete sharia law as it is. Although in practice, especially more occurring in Egypt than in Lebanon, persecution, kidnapping, etc is a daily reality for Christians in many parts of Egypt (and some parts in Lebanon).

The choices in the quran are convert, die or pay jizya (which is a penalty, not tax) with feeling themselves subdued.

God bless you sister. May the Holy Spirit protects you there.
I see that according to wikipedia, which i believe cites 2013's research result, shows that 54% of the Lebanese citizen are muslims and 40.4% Christians. Is it anywhere near correct representative of today's percentage in Lebanon?

Even jizyah is not a taxation. It is a penalty, that's why you are feeling subdued in paying it.

I only hope more will see this testimony from an ex-political leader from iran:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFnebWT4pnQ

1) My main question is, How did they get to be so many Christians in Lebanon?
we used to be a 100 % Christian country before Islam and then they started coming here from Saudi Arabia and Iran.

2) How they get to be numerous Christians in the Arab world like the Copts in Egypt.
Coptics also used to be the majority in Egypt but Islam changed everything, they used to kill anyone who doesn't want to convert so Islam is not a religion of peace and if you read the history of Islam, you will see that mohamad himself, killed a lot of people and forced them to convert including his followers (he gave them money and women so they converted).