[21twelve]

Yes - good advice to read several sources. One other thing I noted while I was getting caught up in the interwebs - the term “Arab” is for nomadic tribes - and the old spelling is similar to the word “Hebrew” (they were also nomadic for so long!).

I guess what I was trying to get to in saying Arabs are muslims, is that there are lots of Arabs that are Christian, or other sects, that are not caught up in Islam. And that Mohammad just made up his religion.

[papertyger]

I guess what I was trying to get to in saying Arabs are muslims, is that there are lots of Arabs that are Christian, or other sects, that are not caught up in Islam. And that Mohammad just made up his religion.

Oh, I agree with you; islam was contrived from whole cloth, but that point is moot now, no?

It is a matter of historical record that muslims conquered all the formerly Christian nations in the area. And while Christians have and do exist in that region, Lebanon is unfortunately the rule rather than the exception to muslim methodologies.

Moreover, the existence of other sects does not mean those sects are not in "submission" to islam. Indeed, islam does not require conversion of its subject peoples: only acknowledgement of their defeated status, and payment of the jizya tax as dhimmnis.