Why Arabs come to America: Joseph Farah on data showing nearly 80 percent are not Muslim

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, December 5, 2003 | Joseph Farah

[JohnHuang2]

Why Arabs come to America

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Posted: December 5, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

New Census Bureau data show the population of Americans of Arab ancestry has doubled in the last two decades.

As the grandson of immigrants from the Arab world, I'm not surprised.

I know why most Arabs come to this country. They come to escape Islamic persecution in the Arab world. They come for the freedom America affords. They come for opportunity. But most of all they come for a life away from the brutal reality of Islamo-fascism, which dominates the Arab nations.

How do I know this?

I know from personal, anecdotal experience. I know why friends and family members came here. But I also know because the statistics offered by the Census Bureau demonstrate it.

What am I talking about?

While Islam is the overwhelmingly dominant religion of the Arab world, only 23 percent of the Arabs in this country are Muslim.

That statistic speaks volumes.

Even after the latest wave of emigration from the Arab world, 77 percent of Arab-Americans are non-Muslims – mostly Christians.

This is a fact other Americans should know. As an Arab-American, I can tell you there is almost an assumption by most Americans that Arabs – even Arab-Americans – are Muslims. It's understandable given the demographics of the Arab world.

However, the demographics of the Arab-American community are strikingly different.

These facts are not sitting well with the Muslim-American groups. They charge that Muslim-Americans are being undercounted. In fact, for too long, the Muslim-American groups have been attempting to speak for the vast majority of Christian Arab-Americans.

In fact, Christian Arab-Americans tend to have vastly different viewpoints on the Middle East than Muslim-Americans. They tend to have vastly different outlooks on the war on terror than Muslim-Americans. They tend to have vastly different perspectives on American life than Muslim-Americans – at least different than the self-proclaimed leaders of the Muslim-American organizations.

In 1992, the American Muslim Council estimated there were more than 5 million followers of Islam in the country, of whom 12 percent were Arabs. Other Arab and Muslim groups say the number is closer to 6 million Muslims, a population that would make them more numerous than Jews.

With those spokesmen, vying for political influence, have exaggerated their constituent base by a factor of two or three times, the Census Bureau numbers rain down like a cold shower. Politicians – from the president on down – need this reality check.

In 2001, the American Religious Identification Survey, released by the City University of New York, estimated the total number of Muslims in America to be no higher than 2.8 million – or 1 percent of the population and roughly half as large as the Jewish population. This figure is much more in line with the Census Bureau numbers and probably much closer to the truth than the 5 million, 6 million or even 7 million figures suggested by the professional Muslim activists.

Again, according to the ARIS report, recent Arab immigrants from Egypt, Jordan and Iraq are disproportionately Christians – and some are Jews.

While politicians often assume Arab-Americans are going to be hostile to the state of Israel, this is not necessarily true – particularly when those Arabs are Christians and especially when they are Jews.

The Arab-American community is not monolithic politically – despite what the professional Arab spokesmen and the professional Muslim spokesmen would like you to believe.

I believe most Arab-Americans – like most Americans – want to see their brethren in the Arab world freed from oppression by the mullahs and the oil sheikhs. I believe most Arab-Americans – like most Americans – want to see the United States defend itself from terrorist attack. I believe most Arab-Americans – like most Americans – want to see freedom breaking out in the Arab world.

And, I believe most Arab-Americans – like most Americans – don't want to see the U.S. orchestrate the creation of another terrorist state in the Middle East.

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[JohnHuang2]

Friday, December 5, 2003

Quote of the Day by UCANSEE2

[cyborg]

Glad he wrote this article. Many were quick to jump on the islamofascist bandwagon with out facts or knowing people. Sometimes people need to be straightened out with sanity.

[america-rules]

These numbers don't add up because there are a few million Black Muslims in the USA !

[tessalu]

Yes, thanks for posting this article, for we need to be reminded. I am in favor of allowing Arabs in to escape Islamic persecution. But I cannot think of one reason to bring a Muslim into the USA. Islam is a politcal idea, and it is subversive and does not belong in this land of the free.

[tkathy]

I am a little suspect of these numbers, for some reason. Whatever, recent Arab immigrants need to speak up loud and clear against the mass murderers. I sure don't hear much of anything.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I'm flummoxed to remember the title or author of the book I read 5+ years ago which gave the results of a survey of self-identified religious affiliations in America. It presented US maps showing the distribution of each religion in America. Here in NY, you could easily get the impression that most Americans are Catholic, in Texas you might think they were mostly Baptist, and so forth.

But the book also made the statement that immigrants to America were not representative of the populations of the countries they emmigrated from (that should be obvious, of course--otherwise whole countries would depopulate and immigrate here).

The book made the point that emmigrants from a non-christian country were disproportionately likely to be Christian--and emmigrants from a Christian country were disproportionately likely to be Protestant. Which only makes sense; the cultural resistance to leaving your homeland would be least among the groups least representative of the overall culture in any given country.

The effect is pretty strong, if emmigrants from a 90% muslim country are 77% non-muslim . . .

[LadyDoc]

according to the Pluralist project there are about 1.6 million black Muslims...

[A. Pole]

I know why most Arabs come to this country. They come to escape Islamic persecution in the Arab world. They come for the freedom America affords. They come for opportunity. But most of all they come for a life away from the brutal reality of Islamo-fascism, which dominates the Arab nations. How do I know this? I know from personal, anecdotal experience. I know why friends and family members came here. But I also know because the statistics offered by the Census Bureau demonstrate it. What am I talking about? While Islam is the overwhelmingly dominant religion of the Arab world, only 23 percent of the Arabs in this country are Muslim. That statistic speaks volumes. Even after the latest wave of emigration from the Arab world, 77 percent of Arab-Americans are non-Muslims – mostly Christians.

Bump.

[reformedliberal]

I saw an article yesterday on this topic and the figure for immigrant Muslims in America was 1.2M. Add that to the 1.6M Black Muslims and you get Farah's number of no higher than 2.8M.


Since Muslims have large families, I would like to see a breakdown by age. It could be that there are only 1M or fewer Muslim adults in America. I would also like to know if the women in this group are allowed to vote by their husbands, fathers, brothers. A long-term tracking study of assimilation among Muslim children born and educated in America would also be helpful.

[Gritty]

It's good somebody is speaking up about this phenomenon.

There is heavy religious persecution in this world. Much of it is against Christians, and most of it takes place in the Islamic countries, now that Communism is "dead".

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[gaspar]

This is an article that is long overdue. The same scenario has been replicated in South America where the percentages, I would submit, are about the same. However, in the last two decades South America has become the place of choice for Middle East Muslims. Similar to the United States, in the South American melting pot the Muslims do not melt. Worse, there is a Muslim stratum, a ruthless criminal element that threatens economic and social stability, and it is growing exponentially.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Cronos]

Remember that thesearab christiansare fleeing persecution. To judge allarabs by the stupid slamics is, well, stupid.

[Cronos]

Note: Kathy: Arabsare not necessarily slmis. Next you'd be asking Russians, Brits etc. immigrants for the same thin.

[gubamyster]

ping

[JustPiper]

I'm curious why sayd Kuwait, etc won't take them, its much closer geographically

[rmlew]

I don't trust any Near Eastern Christian or Jew who calls himself an "Arab".
The term "Arab" mean nomad. As a political/ethnic term it reffered to the Nomads of the Hijaz (Mecca and Yathrib/Medina). These Arabs unified under Mohammed and Islam and murdered, raped, pillaged, and expelled their ways through the Jewish and Christian peoples of the region. The pagans were foreceably converted. The Arabs then practiced the same as they conquered Yemen, Persia, the Levant, North Africa, Spain and Turkestan.
The central area around the Hijaz- the Arabian penninsula, Mespatamia, the Levant, and much of North Africa- slowly became Arabic in nature. The regions further away from Arabia became Muslim, but not Arab. The Pagans were all converted (a few hundred Yezhedi remain in Mesopatamia) while the Christians and Jews were only strongly pressured to do so.

At any rate, the non-Muslims who call themselves "Arabs" are accepting teh culture that has oppressed them since the 620's. They have gone through a Stockholm syndrom.
The Jews, Phonecians, Copts, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and others belong to cultures far older than the one cobbled together by the Mohammedans.

[fatidic]

Completely agree with you. Allowing Muslims into America is inviting subversion of the Constitution. No matter how hard Muslims work to conceal their desire to destroy our way of life just scratch the surface and you hear their anti-American and envious sentiments expressing an ardent desire to see that we get what we deserve for humiliating Muslims, etc.