From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Arabs/Baha Abu-Laban
Arab Canadians began to establish ethno-specific religious institutions in the opening years of the twentieth century. Because the overwhelming majority of immigrants in this period were Christians, Arab Eastern Christianity was represented first by the Antiochian Orthodox Church and the Maronite and Melkite churches (the latter two are Catholic churches in communion with Rome) and later, in the 1960s, by the Coptic Church. The first Islamic mosque was built in Edmonton in 1938 and in the post–World War II period mosques were erected in virtually all major cities across Canada.
Christians account for over 57 percent of the Arab-Canadian population, according to the 1991 census, and these include different Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant groups. While Catholic and Orthodox Christian Arabs tend to have their own churches, particularly in the larger metropolitan areas, most of the Protestant groups are integrated with their respective Canadian religious communities.
Although the number of Arab Muslim immigrants in the first half of this century was relatively small, they began to arrive in larger numbers from the 1960s. In part because of this – and because of the arrival of non-Arab Muslim immigrants from Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East – Islam is now the fastest growing religion among Arab Canadians, with an affiliation of almost 40 percent of the entire group in 1991. Like their Eastern Christian counterparts, Arab Muslims encompass different sects, including, in the main, Sunnis, Shiites, and Druze.
Arab culture and heritage are characteristic of both Muslims and Christians who originate in the Arab world and this is also true of Jews, who have lived in that region for thousands of years. While many Jews tend to regard their faith as both a religion and a cultural designation, some separate their religious faith from the broader culture in which they have been raised. Because of this, some 0.7 percent of Arab-origin Canadians are reported as belonging to the Jewish faith. This serves as a reminder that the appellation Arab is synonymous neither with Islam nor with Christianity nor with Judaism. Rather, it correctly incorporates all three monotheistic religions.
