Religion In The Middle East
The Middle East is very religiously diverse. The three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are interconnected and each originated within the Middle East. Islam in its many forms is by far the most heavily represented religion in the region though many branches and sects diversify and segment it. In addition to the widely acknowledged religions, smaller, minority religions such as Bahá'í, Druze, Yazidi, Mandean, Gnosticism, Yarsanism, Shabakism, Zoroastrianism are also prevalent throughout the Middle East.
Read more about Religion In The Middle East: Other Religions
Famous quotes containing the words middle east, religion, middle and/or east:
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)
“Is there any religion but this, to know, that, wherever in the wide desert of being, the holy sentiment we cherish has opened into a flower, it blooms for me? If none sees it, I see it; I am aware, if I alone, of the greatness of the fact. Whilst it blooms, I will keep sabbath or holy time, and suspend my gloom, and my folly and jokes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In the middle years of childhood, it is more important to keep alive and glowing the interest in finding out and to support this interest with skills and techniques related to the process of finding out than to specify any particular piece of subject matter as inviolate.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)
“Though all the East did quake to hear
Of Alexander’s dreadful name,
And all the West likewise did fear
To hear of Julius Caesar’s fame,”
—Robert Southwell (1561?–1595)