Religion (Without Islam)

The list of still-active religious movements given here is an attempt to summarize the most important regional and philosophical influences on local communities, but it is by no means a complete description of every religious community, nor does it explain the most important elements of individual religiousness.

Abrahamic
Abrahamic religions are monotheistic religions which believe they descend from Abraham.
 * 1) Judaism is the oldest Abrahamic religion, originating in the people of ancient Israel and Judea. Judaism is based primarily on the Torah, a text which some Jews believe was handed down to the people of Israel through the prophet Moses. This along with the rest of the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud are the central texts of Judaism. The Jewish people were scattered after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Today there are about 15 million Jews, about 30% living in Israel, 30% in the United States and 10% in Yiddishland.
 * 2) Christianity is based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (1st century) as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and as Savior and Lord. A majority of Christians believe in the Trinity, which teaches the unity of Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. However, the Moorish Christians only consider the Father as God and reject the Trinity. The main divisions of Christianity are, according to the number of adherents: (1)
 * 3) * Catholic Church, headed by the Pope in Rome, is a communion of the Latin church and 22 Eastern Catholic churches.
 * 4) * Protestant Churches, separated from the Catholic Church in the 16th-century Reformation and split in many denominations.
 * 5) * Orthodox Churches, composed of several self-governing ecclesial bodies, each geographically (and often nationally) distinct but unified in theology and worship. Each autocephalous church is headed by a patriarch.
 * 6) * Monophysite Churches, which includes the Coptic Churches and the Syriac Orthodox Church.
 * 7) * Martyrs' Church (also known as Moorish Church), is the major nontrinitarian church and the main church in Northwest Africa.
 * 8) * Nestorian Church or Church of the East, is the major church in Mesopotamia.
 * 9) Ishmaelism is an exclusive religion of the Arab people. This religion have a strong influence of Judaism and Christianity. Two of its holy books, Taurat and Zabur, are the Arab adaptation of the Torah and the Psalms, respectively. The third holy book, Injil, is the adaptation of the Gospels. Ishmaelists believe in Jesus as a prophet, but not as the Son of God as the Christians consider. Ishmaelism is the most widely practiced religion of the countries of the Arabian Peninsula.
 * 10) Smaller regional Abrahamic groups, including Samaritanism (primarily in Israel and the West Bank), the Rastafari movement (primarily in Jamaica), Druze (primarily in Syria and Lebanon) and Bahaism (primarily in the Middle East).
 * 11) Other religions are considered a syncretism of Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic religions. This is the case of the Alevism (main religion in Turkey), Mandaism (primarily in the Middle East) and Pashtunism (primarily in Afghanistan, Balochistan and Khalistan).