in the New Testament, meaning that the mainstream Churches do not oblige their followers to do so. In some Eastern Christian denominations, such as Coptic Christianity, male circumcision is an established practice, and require that their male members undergo circumcision shortly after birth as part of a rite of passage. Demographics Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world. Algeria Christianity came to Algeria in the Roman era, and declined after the arrival of Islam in the 7th century. A notable Berber Christian of Algeria was Saint Augustine (and his mother Saint Monica), important saints in Christianity. Prior to independence from France in 1962, Algeria was home to 1.4 million pieds-noirs (ethnic French who were mostly Catholic). Arguably, many more Maghrebi Christians live in France than in North Africa, due to the exodus of the pieds-noirs in the 1960s. In 2009, the percentage of Christians in Algeria was less than 2%. In this same survey, the United Nations counted 100,000 Catholics and 45,000 Protestants in the country. A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria. Conversions have been most common in the Kabylie. Charles de Foucauld was renowned for his missions in Algeria among Muslims, including Arabs. Bahrain Native Christians who hold Bahraini citizenship number approximately 1,000 persons. The majority of Christians are originally from Iraq, Palestine and Jordan, with a small minority having lived in Bahrain for many centuries; the majority have been living as Bahraini citizens for less than a century. There are also smaller numbers of native Christians who originally hail from Lebanon, Syria, and India. The majority of Christian Bahraini citizens tend to be Orthodox Christians, with the largest church by membership being the Greek Orthodox Church. They enjoy many equal religious and social freedoms. Bahrain has Christian members in the Bahraini government. Egypt The Copts in Egypt constitute the largest Christian community in the Middle East, as well as the largest religious minority in the region, accounting for an estimated 10% of Egyptian population. Since antiquity, there has always been a Levantine presence in Egypt, however they started becoming a distinctive minority in Egypt around the early 18th century. The Syro-Lebanese Christians of Egypt were highly influenced by European culture and established churches, printing houses and businesses across Egypt. Their aggregate wealth was reckoned at one and a half billion francs, 10% of the Egyptian GDP at the end of