Difference Between Muslims and Arabs

Muslims Vs Arabs

Oftentimes, Muslim and Arabs are being stereotyped as belonging to each other’s group. Many believe, to this date, that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims. However, this is not always the case.

Muslims are individuals embracing the religion Islam, hence Muslims are part of a religious sect. Arabs on the other hand are individuals that dwell or own the Arabian or Arab regions. Thus, they form a specific internationally known nationality. They speak the Arabic (Arabian) language and can choose whatever faith or religion they plan to follow. On the other hand, Muslims can have native tongues of almost any language in the world.

Perhaps the reason why the terms Arabs and Muslims get intertwined frequently is the fact that the Arab region is the cradle of religion. It is where most religions had begun to sprout, which includes Christianity and Islam; not to mention Mohammed (Islam’s prophet) to be of Arabian decent. Yet, it must be noted that an Arab citizen can be of any religious order like: Jewish, Islam and Christianity. Hence, this gives birth to Christian Arabs and Muslim Arabs. In the same manner, depending on your nationality you can still be a devotee of Islam. You can be called an American Muslim or Arab Muslim, for that instance.

The Arabs live predominantly within the Middle Eastern nations including  Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq while the Muslim congregation lives mostly in Asia (about 60%) while the rest are in the Middle East, Africa and other parts in the world.

Lastly, recent world headcount estimates that the Muslim population has grown to as big as 1.5 billion worldwide in 2009 (almost one-fourth of the total population in the world) whereas the Arab people can only sum up to several millions. Thus, it is safe to establish the fact that Muslims are ideally greater in number than the Arabs.

Summary :
1.Muslim is a type of person who accepts the Islamic religion whereas an Arab is a type of ethnicity or nationality.
2.Muslims can use many different languages since they can reside from anywhere around the world while the Arabs primarily use the Arabic language.
3.Arabs usually originate from the Middle East specifically from Iraq,  Syria and Saudi Arabia whereas Muslims can come from almost every corner in the world mainly in Asia.
4.Muslims are practically more in number than the Arab total populace.