Religion in the Middle East

For approximately a millennium, the Abrahamic religions have been predominant throughout all of the Middle East.^[1][2][3] The Abrahamic tradition itself and the three best-known Abrahamic religions originate from the Middle East: Judaism and Christianity emerged in the Levant in the 6th century BCE and the 1st century CE, respectively, while Islam emerged in Arabia in the 7th century CE.

Today, Islam is the region's dominant religion, being adhered to by at least 90% of the population in every Middle Eastern country except for Jewish-majority Israel and Christian-majority Cyprus.^[4] Muslims constitute 18% of the total Israeli population and 25% of the total Cypriot population, or approximately 2% if Turkish-occupied Cyprus is excluded from this figure.^[5][6]

There are a number of minority religions present in the Middle East, belonging to the Abrahamic tradition or other religious categories, such as the Iranian religions. These include the Baháʼí Faith, Druzism,^[7] Bábism, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Yarsanism, Samaritanism, Ishikism, Yazdânism, and Zoroastrianism. While contemporary Middle Eastern religious practices are overwhelmingly monotheistic, most of the region's ancient traditions were polytheistic, including the Semitic religions, the Egyptian religion, the Greek religion, and various Iranian religions.