Given this long history of Anglo-American perceptions of the essentially Islamic "East," there is little ability among western Christians to grasp Mitri Raheb's assertion that since "Arab Christians and Muslims share the Arabic culture, history, and language; their fate is intertwined and inseparable," and that, likewise, "Arab Christians are an inseparable part of the world of Islam." (18) As the late Palestinian intellectual and Anglican
Christian, Edward Said, once observed, "Being an Arab, even for a non-Muslim, means being a member of ...