Misconception

All Muslims arent Arabs, But are all Arabs Muslims?

Don’t get what I mean? Read On

The first part of the sentence above does make some sense but the second part? I know.. I too had the same misconception for years. Me being a Muslim I thought all Arabs were Muslims until I too got to know on one fine day.

All Muslims arent Arabs: Well this is simple. But for those of you who dont know, there are Muslims from other countries too who are non arabs from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan etc. As a child when I heard of American Muslims it was too difficult to digest. It almost seemed impossible to me then thinking they must have converted (With all respect to the people converted to Islam, I mean no offense here) and not born Muslims. But I was wrong. There are born Muslims too worldwide.

Are all Arabs Muslims?: Now what is this? All Arabs aren’t Muslims? Though its naturally assumed that all Arabs are Muslims, there exist Christian & Jew Arabs too. A small percentage of Christian Arabs do exist in countries like Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine and Syria. The word ‘Arab’ just denotes the Arabic speaking population and doesnt indicate if they are Christian or Muslim, just as the word ‘English’ doesnt denote which faith you follow.

Muslim denotes the religion while Arab denotes the people. Both can’t be considered as one. So naturally, All Muslims aren’t Arabs, All Arabs aren’t Muslims.