I may have posted something about this before, but probably just a comment in a thread, but I was looking at these numbers this morning, and I am always surprised by some of the numbers.

The following countries have a higher % of Christians than Israel:
Bahrain
Kuwait
Qatar
Kyrgyzstan
Egypt
United Arab Emirates
Oman
Djibouti
Palestine
Jordan
Saudi Arabia

Given the importance that this particular strip of land has played in our shared histories, along with perceptions of how welcoming one of the above countries would be towards Christians vs the perceptions of how welcoming Israel would be, any idea as to why there are so few Christians actually living in Israel?

Saudi Arabia is welcoming to Christians? Really? The country who puts you to death for converting? Egypt? Qatar? Not the best list.

wbt5845 said:

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There's an easy explanation - Israel doesn't bring in indentured servants from Christian countries that artificially inflates the number of Christians present. In fact, there are almost no citizens of any of those countries that are Christians - except Israel.

Plus - there's no country called "Palestine".

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Weird. I didn't see any Christian indentured servants when I was in Palestine. I did meet a lot of Christians that had lived in Palestine for generations though. I thought most of these "indentured servants" in places like Saudi Arabia came from Asian nations. Anything showing that they are bringing in Christian indentured servants?

We did hear that Israel loves to bring in Thai "indentured servants" to work the settlement date farms. Fortunately, though, BDS has been very effective against settlement dates.

Martin Q. Blank said:

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Saudi Arabia is welcoming to Christians? Really? The country who puts you to death for converting? Egypt? Qatar? Not the best list.

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I didn't say they were welcoming. I simply pointed out that despite perceptions, there are a greater percentage of Christians in those nations than in Israel. Then I asked if anyone knew why that was so. I think it's interesting and had never heard a valid reason for why that may be the case.

You just saw a good reason by me, but chose to ignore it. There are millions of Filipino laborers in the Kingdom which inflates that percentage.

Using your same source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Saudi_Arabia

Quote:

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There are more than a million Roman Catholics in Saudi Arabia. Most of them are expatriate Filipinos who work there, but are not Saudi Arabian citizens. There are also Christians from (long list of countries) who are working in the Saudi Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia allows Christians to enter the country as foreign workers for temporary work, but does not allow them to practice their faith openly. Because of that Christians generally only worship within private homes. Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are prohibited. These include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols, and others.

The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: ), or Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (i.e., the religious police) prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam.

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Well Saudi Arabia Christians are almost all migrants. Same with Qatar. Egypt obviously has a longer history with the native Christians, but hardly welcoming.

Ask yourself, if your average Israeli citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen to him?

If you average Saudi Arabian citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen?

wbt5845 said:

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You just saw a good reason by me, but chose to ignore it. There are millions of Filipino laborers in the Kingdom which inflates that percentage.

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I saw a reason, but I have no idea if it's a "good" one or not. You gave no support of it. I'm not saying your reasoning is wrong, but I'm not going to simply take your word for it, especially given previous comments you've made.

Quote:

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Ask yourself, if your average Israeli citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen to him?

If you average Saudi Arabian citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen?

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I know you are like a moth to flame when it comes to me, but let me explain. Your questions highlight why I'm started the thread in the first place. Given the perceived reception of Christians in each of these countries, I am surprised that there are a greater percentage in countries considered hostile to Christianity.

I was simply asking if there was a valid reason for it.

RetiredAg said:

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Quote:

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Ask yourself, if your average Israeli citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen to him?

If you average Saudi Arabian citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen?

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I know you are like a moth to flame when it comes to me, but let me explain. Your questions highlight why I'm started the thread in the first place. Given the perceived reception of Christians in each of these countries, I am surprised that there are a greater percentage in countries considered hostile to Christianity.

I was simply asking if there was a valid reason for it.

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Listing those countries together as if there is ONE valid reason is stupid. Go country by country. I can say though Saudi Arabia and Qatar: 100% migration.

Martin Q. Blank said:

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RetiredAg said:

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Quote:

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Ask yourself, if your average Israeli citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen to him?

If you average Saudi Arabian citizen converted to Christianity, what would happen?

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I know you are like a moth to flame when it comes to me, but let me explain. Your questions highlight why I'm started the thread in the first place. Given the perceived reception of Christians in each of these countries, I am surprised that there are a greater percentage in countries considered hostile to Christianity.

I was simply asking if there was a valid reason for it.

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Listing those countries together as if there is ONE valid reason is stupid. Go country by country. I can say though Saudi Arabia and Qatar: 100% migration.

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I have no idea if there is "one valid reason". I simply listed countries that surprised me. Obviously reasons may vary by nation. For example, I'm pretty confident that migration has nothing to do with the higher % in Palestine. I am aware that the Saudis import a lot of labor, although I don't know the religious breakdown of the imported labor.

My opinion:

This is a meaningless statistic that reveals very little meaningful information about the religious politics or the religious tolerance of the people that live in that region.