Editing Arab Americans (section)

==Religious background==
{{Pie chart
| thumb = right
| caption = The religious affiliations of Arab Americans as of 2002
| label1 = [[Catholicism in the United States|Catholic]]
| value1 = 35
| color1 = Red
| label2 = [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]]
| value2 = 18
| color2 = Purple
| label3 = [[Protestantism in the United States|Protestant]]
| value3 = 10
| color3 = Blue
| label4 = [[Islam in the United States|Muslim]]
| value4 = 24
| color4 = green
| label5 = Other
| value5 = 13
| color5 = #dbdbdb
}}

According to the Arab American Institute based on the Zogby International Survey in 2002, the breakdown of religious affiliation among persons originating from Arab countries is as follows:

* 63% [[Christians|Christian]]
** 35% [[Catholic Church|Roman]]/[[Eastern Catholic Churches|Eastern Catholic]], including Roman Catholic, [[Maronite]] and [[Melkite (Greek Catholic)|Melkite]]
** 18% Orthodox, including [[Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch|Antiochian]], [[Syriac Orthodox Church|Syrian]], [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek]], and [[Coptic Orthodox Church|Coptic]] 
** 10% [[Protestantism|Protestant]]
* 24% [[Muslims|Muslim]], including [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]], [[Shia Islam|Shia]], and [[Druze]]
* 13% other or no affiliation<ref name="aai">{{cite web|url=http://www.aaiusa.org/arab-americans/22/demographics|title=Arab Americans: Demographics|publisher=Arab American Institute|date=2006|access-date=18 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060601221810/http://www.aaiusa.org/arab-americans/22/demographics|archive-date=1 June 2006}}</ref>

The percentage of Arab Americans who are Muslim has increased in recent years because most new Arab immigrants tend to be Muslim. In the past 10 years, most Arab immigrants were Muslim as compared to 15 to 30 years ago when they were mostly Christian. This stands in contrast to the first wave of Arab immigration to the US between the late 19th and early 20th centuries when almost all immigrants were Christians. Those Palestinians often Eastern Orthodox, otherwise Catholic and a few Episcopalians. A small number are Protestant adherents, either having joined a Protestant denomination after immigrating to the US or being from a family that converted to Protestantism while still living in the [[Eastern Mediterranean]] (European and American Protestant missionaries were fairly commonplace in the Levant in the late 19th and early 20th centuries).

Arab Christians, especially from [[Lebanon]], [[Iraq]], [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], [[Jordan]], [[Syria]], and [[Egypt]], continued to immigrate to the US in the 2000s and form new enclaves and communities across the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.yahoo.com/arab-christians-minorities-reshaping-us-enclaves-090951417.html|title=Arab Christians, minorities, reshaping US enclaves|date=11 November 2011|publisher=Yahoo News|access-date=18 March 2015}}</ref>

The US is the second largest home of Druze communities outside the Middle East after Venezuela (60,000).<ref name="Los Angeles Times"/> According to some estimates there are about 30,000<ref name="latimes.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-druze-future-20170731-story.html|title=Finding a life partner is hard enough. For those of the Druze faith, their future depends on it|date=27 August 2017|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> to 50,000<ref name="Los Angeles Times"/> [[Druzes]] in the US, with the largest concentration in [[Southern California]].<ref name="latimes.com"/> Most Druze immigrated to the US from Lebanon and Syria.<ref name="latimes.com"/>

The New York City metropolitan area has a large population of [[Arab Jews]] and [[Mizrahi Jews]]. New York City and its suburbs in New Jersey have sizable Syrian Sephardi populations. Syrian Jews and other Jews from Arab countries may or may not identify as Arab Americans. When Syrian Jews first began to arrive in New York City during the late 1800s and early 1900s, [[Eastern European Jewry|Eastern European]] [[Ashkenazi Jews]] on the Lower East Side sometimes disdained their Syrian co-coreligionists as ''Arabische Yidden'', [[Yiddish]] for "Arab Jews". Some Ashkenazim doubted whether [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi]] or [[Mizrahi Jews]] from the Middle East were Jewish at all. In response, some Syrian Jews who were deeply proud of their ancient Jewish heritage, derogatorily dubbed Ashkenazi Jews as "J-Dubs", a reference to the first and third letters of the English word "Jew".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/magazine/14syrians-t.html |title=The Sy Empire |work=The New York Times |date=14 October 2007 |accessdate=2024-04-29 |last1=Chafets |first1=Zev |archive-date=2021-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126101815/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/magazine/14syrians-t.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 1990 US census, there were 11,610 Arab Jews in New York City, comprising 23 percent of the total Arab population of the city.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/download/1669/934/2599 |title=A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City |publisher=American Journal of Islam and Society |accessdate=2024-04-29 |archive-date=2021-05-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515190911/https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/download/1669/934/2599 |url-status=live }}</ref> Arab Jews in the city sometimes face [[anti-Arab racism]]. After the [[September 11 attacks]], some Arab Jews in New York City were subjected to arrest and detention because they were suspected to be Islamist terrorists.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://jaamr.com/resources/key-terms-and-concepts-for-understanding-us-islamophobia/ |title=KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS FOR UNDERSTANDING U.S. ISLAMOPHOBIA |publisher=Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism |accessdate=2021-05-15 |archive-date=2023-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121051733/https://jaamr.com/resources/key-terms-and-concepts-for-understanding-us-islamophobia/ |url-status=live }}</ref>