Re: CHAT: Visible planets (was: Corpses)

I had written:
<<Here in the US, about half of the Arabs are Christians because
they mostly came from the Arab countries that have had large
Christian populations since the time of the Crusades (namely,
Lebanon, Palestine and Syria).>>

Peter Bleackley responded:
<< I was under the impression that Arabic Christianity was
considerably  more ancient than that, dating back to the
early Church...>>

I reply:
Yes indeed, most Arabs were Christians before the rise of Islam.
And some Arab Christians never converted to Islam, despite the
Moslem conquests.  Examples include the Coptic Christians of
Alexandria (in Egypt), and Assyrian tribes in northeastern Iraq.
But the territories the Crusaders established kingdoms in are the
only ones where Christians are a major portion of the population
(45% of Lebanese, 22% of Palestinians, and 15% of Syrians).