Top 10 Religions in the Middle East

1.Zoroastrianism:

In the Middle East, Zoroastrianism is found in central Iran. Today, there are estimated to be under 20,000 Zoroastrians in Iran. It is one of the oldest monotheistic religions as it was founded 3500 years ago.It was also one of the most powerful religions in the world for about 1000 years.Now, however, it is considered one of the smallest religions with only 190,000 followers worldwide. There are two deities: Azhura Mazda, who fights for a person’s goodness, and Ahriman, who fights for a person’s evil. It is ultimately up to the individual to decide which deity they will follow. Zoroastreans follow the Avesta which is their primary sacred text.

2.shabakism:

There are about 60,000 Shabak people living today all in northern Iraq. They are an ethnic group with a religion similar to orthodox Islam and Christianity. The Shabak have much in common with the Yazidis.

3.Mandaesim: 

Mandaeism is a gnostic religion (Aramaic manda means "knowledge," as does Greek gnosis) with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist, but reject Abraham, Moses and Jesus of Nazareth.

According to most scholars, Mandaeans migrated from the Southern Levant to Mesopotamia in the first centuries CE, and are of pre-Arab and pre-Islamic origin. They are Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. They may well be related to the "Nabateans of Iraq" who were pagan, Aramaic-speaking indigenous pre-Arab and pre-Islamic inhabitants of southern Iraq , There are between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide and within the Middle East they are found in Iraq and Iran.

4.Yazīdī:

The yazidi are a religious Kurdish community who represent an ancient religion that linked to Zoroastrianism and Sufism. They currently live primarily in the Nineveh Province of northern Iraq. Additional communities in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, and Syria have been in decline since the 1990s, their members having emigrated to Europe, especially to Germany. Their religion is seen as a highly syncretic complex of local Yezidi beliefs that contains Zoroastrian elements and Islamic Sufi doctrine introduced to the area by Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir in the 12th century. The Yazidi believe in God as creator of the world, which he placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel, They do not see themselves as descendent from Adam and maintain complete segregation from the rest of the population . They number fewer than 100,000 and worship a main divinity called Yazīdī is Malak Ṭāʾūs (“Peacock Angel”).

5. Druze faith:

The Druze are a monotheistic ethnoreligious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Druze beliefs incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Pythagoreanism, and other philosophies. The Druze call themselves Ahl al-Tawhid "the People of Monotheism" or al-Muwaḥḥidūn "the Unitarians". Druze is an offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shia Islam. Druze follow the seven pillars of Ismailism .

The Druze people reside primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. The Institute of Druze Studies estimates that forty to fifty percent of Druze live in Syria, thirty to forty percent in Lebanon, six to seven percent in Israel, and one or two percent in Jordan. Large communities of expatriate Druze also live outside the Middle East, in Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the United States, and West Africa. They use the Arabic language and follow a social pattern very similar to those of the other peoples of the eastern Mediterranean region.

The number of Druze people worldwide exceeds one million, with the vast majority residing in the Levant or East Mediterranean.

6. Bahá'í Faith:

Within the Middle East, Bahá'í has noteworthy representation in Iran, United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Turkey. Its international headquarters are located upon the northern slope of Mount Carmel at Haifa, Israel. Founded in Iran in 1863, the Bahá'í Faith is one of the youngest world major religions. The faith was started with Siyyid `Alí-Muhammad of Shiraz who is called The Bab (the Gate). He proclaimed that another of God’s messengers descendent from Abraham would soon appear. That messenger was a young Iranian named Mírzá Husayn `Alí Núrí, later titled Bahá'u'lláh (Glory of God). The Bahá'í Faith is founded on the principle that each of the world’s religions has truth. In the line of prophets of the past and to come, God’s message will continue to be revealed; the Bahá'í Faith refers to this as progressive revelation. Another aspect of the ideal of common truth, is unity within the Bahá'í Faith. The Bahá'í Faith holds that all people must feel united with one another with a goal of improving all of humanity. According to most encyclopedias, in the early 21st century there are an estimated between 6 to 8 million Bahá'ís across the globe. Little more than 150 years old and second only to Christianity, the Bahá'í Faith is considered to be the most geographically diverse religion spreading across the globe to every country except North Korea and Vatican City. Its scriptures appear in more than 700 languages.

7.Samaritanism:

The Samaritan religion is based on some of the same books used as the basis of mainstream Judaism, but differs from the latter. Samaritan scriptures include the Samaritan version of the Torah, the Memar Markah, the Samaritan liturgy, and Samaritan law codes and biblical commentaries. Samaritans appear to have texts of the Torah as old as the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; scholars have various theories concerning the actual relationships between these three texts , The Samaritans retained the Ancient Hebrew script, the high priesthood, animal sacrifices, the eating of lambs at Passover, and the celebration of Aviv in spring as the New Year. Yom Teruah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei, is not considered a new year as it is in Judaism. Their main Torah text differs from the Masoretic Text, as well. Some differences are doctrinal: for example, the Samaritan Torah explicitly states that Mount Gerizim is "the place that God has chosen" for the Temple, as opposed to the Jewish Torah that refers to "the place that God will choose", Other differences are minor and seem more or less accidental.

8.Maronites:

The Maronites  are an ethnoreligious group in the Levant. They derive their name from the Syriac saint Maron whose followers moved to Mount Lebanon from northern Syria establishing the nucleus of the Maronite Church. 

Maronites were able to maintain an independent status in Mount Lebanon and its coastline after the Arab Islamic conquest, maintaining their religion and language there until the 13th century. Remnants of their language exist in Cyprus and formerly in some secluded mountain villages, which have since adopted Arabic due to government standardization.The Maronite Church is in communion with the Church of Rome.

The Ottoman Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate and later the Republic of Lebanon were created under the auspice of European powers with the Maronites as their main ethnic component. Mass emigration to the Americas at the outset of the 20th century and the Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1990 greatly decreased their numbers in the Levant. Maronites today form more than one quarter of the total population in the country of Lebanon. With only two exceptions, all Lebanese and Greater Lebanese presidents have been Maronites. The tradition persists as part of the Lebanese Confessionalist system, also meaning that the Prime Minister has historically been a Sunni Muslim.

 

 A number of Maronite historians claim that their people were the descendants of the Canaanites or Phoenicians, or also the Mardaites, residents in parts of Caliphate province of Bilad al-Sham, who kept their identity under both Byzantine and Arab authorities. The reason for their adoption of the name is disputed and historians disagree whether it refers to Mar Maron, a 4th-century Syriac Christian saint, or to John Maron, the first bishop of Lebanon , he Maronite population is estimated to be about 3 million people.

9.Christianity:

Christianity, which originated in the Middle East in the 1st century AD, was one of the major religions of the region until the Arab Muslim occupation of the mid-to-late 7th century AD. Christianity in the middle east is characterized with its diverse beliefs and traditions compared to other parts of the old world. Christians now make up 5% of the population, down from 20% in the early 20th century , Christianity is the second largest religion in the middle east after islam .

10.Islam:

Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a book considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Allāh) and by the teachings and normative example (called the Sunnah and composed of Hadith) of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.
Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to submit to and serve Allah (God). Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed before many times throughout the world, including notably through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, whom they consider prophets. They maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted or altered over time, but consider the Arabic Qur'an to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God. Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, providing guidance on multifarious topics from banking and welfare, to warfare and the environment.
Most Muslims are of two denominations, Sunni (75–90%), or Shia (10–20%).About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country, 25% in South Asia, 20% in the Middle East, and 15% in Sub-saharan Africa.  Sizable minorities are also found in Europe, China, Russia, and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world (see Islam by country). With about 1.57 billion followers or 23% of earth's population, Islam is the second-largest religion and one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.