What is an Arab?

[glennmac]

I have heard talking heads sometimes referring to Afghans, Pakistanis and Turks as Arabs. My understanding is that these three groups are not Arabs. All Muslims are not Arabs, are they? But are all Arabs Muslims? I don't think so.

What is an Arab?

 

[BobT]

From Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee:
http://www.adc.org/

Facts about Arabs and the Arab World

Who is an Arab?
"Arab" is a cultural and linguistic term. It refers to those who speak Arabic as their first language. Arabs are united by culture and by history. Arabs are not a race. Some have blue eyes and red hair; others are dark skinned; most are somewhere in between. Most Arabs are Muslims but there are also millions of Christian Arabs and thousands of Jewish Arabs, just as there are Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Americans.

What is the Arab World?
The Arab World consists of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Iran and Turkey are not Arab countries and their primary languages are Farsi and Turkish respectively. Arab countries have a rich diversity of ethnic, linguistic, and religious communities. These include Kurds, Armenians, Berbers and others. There are over 200 million Arabs.

What is the Muslim World?
There are an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. The Organization of Islamic Countries has 55 member states. The ten countries with the largest Muslim population are: Indonesia (170.3 million), Pakistan (136 million), Bangladesh (106 million), India (103 million), Turkey (62.4 million), Iran (60.7 million), Egypt (53.7 million), Nigeria (47.7 million) and China (37.1 million). Of these countries only Egypt is an Arab country. Most Arabs are Muslims, but most Muslims are not Arabs.

Who is a Muslim?
A Muslim is a follower of Islam. (See the separate ADC information at http://www.adc.org/education/islam.htm).

What is the Middle East?
The Middle East is a loose term, not always used to describe the same territory. It usually includes the Arab countries from Egypt east to the Persian Gulf, plus Israel and Iran. Turkey is sometimes considered part of the Middle East, sometimes part of Europe. Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are usually described as South Asia.

Who are Arab Americans?
Arab Americans are Americans of Arab descent. There are Americans with roots in each Arab country, but most originate from Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. There are also substantial communities from Egypt, Yemen and Iraq. The first immigrants arrived in the late 19th century. A second wave of immigration started after World War II, and still continues. The largest communities of Arab Americans live in the Detroit-Dearborn area. To view a map of the distribution of Arab Americans visit: http://www-map.lib.umn.edu/bessie/usa/arab.html

Who are some famous Arab Americans?

Some of the more familiar Arab Americans include:

Doug Flutie 1984 Heisman Trophy Winner
Jeff George--football player
Elias Corey 1960 Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry
Paula Abdul singer/dancer
Donna Shalala-Former Secretary of Health and Human Resources
Dr. Michael De Bakey--pioneer heart surgeon
George Mitchell--former Senate Majority Leader
Danny and daughter Marlo Thomas--actors
John Sununu--former White House Chief of Staff
Helen Thomas--former Dean of White House Press Corps
Rony Seikaly--NBA Basketball Player
Bobby Rahal--Race Car Champion
Current Congressmen Darrel Isa and Nick Rahal
Casey Kasem–radio personality
Paul Anka--singer
Lucie Salhany-First woman to head a TV Network (FOX)
Jaime Farr--actor
Kathy Najimy--award winning actress
Ralph Nader--consumer advocate and former Presidential Candidate
Christa McAuliffe--school teacher who was aboard the space shuttle challenger
Kristy McNichol--actress--Empty Nest
Joseph Abboud -designer
F. Murray Abraham--Oscar Winner for best Actor--Amadeus
Callie Khouri--Oscar Winner for Best Original Screenplay for Thelma and Louise
Emile Kuri--2 time Oscar winner for set decor for The Heiress and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Michael Nouri--actor in Flashdance


BobT.
A Indiana Boy

 

[jimmoore]

BobT, thanks for the information. Your informative post answered some questions that I had also.

jim

 

[RPM]

A couple other disconnected points that might be worth noting, but not explicitly covered in the posts ...

The Lebanese are also not considered 'Arabs' - I learned this when I was slapped across the face by a gorgeous Lebanese girl when I was in college. I had apparently been very rude when I had used the term "other Arabs" in some otherwise completely harmless question to her.

One of the other posts talked about Iranians speaking Farsi - the Iranians also prefer sometimes to be known as Persians. This is a larger people group - the exiled King of Afghanistan for example is supposedly a Persian (unlike most Afghans that are Pashtuns - also known as Pathans).

Pakistan (used to be West Pakistan) and Bangladesh (used to be East Pakistan) are both Muslim nations ... they were formed at/after the independence of India from Britain. There was a big movement of Muslims from India to these two new nations at that time ... some very nasty violence happened between religious groups during that process ... thousands killed.

Pretty much every African country that touches the Sahara is a Muslim nation or has a large Muslim population. East Africa also has large Muslim populations - there has been extensive contact between East African nations and what used to be Arabia for centuries. The Dhows (traditional Arabian style of boat) would sail down the East coast of Africa in one season and then back up in another. So countries like Kenya and Tanzania (where the Embassy bombings took place) have particularly large Muslim populations along the coast.

As for Asia - I've always been told that Asia is best understood by people groups - not by current country boundaries. The current geopolitical mess was mostly created artificially by the super-powers of a century ago - countries like Britain and France that drew lines across the map when they divided up the regions. This is why some people groups like the Kurds have no home country.

If you want to look at some real interesting future hot-spots, look at the Eastern provinces of Russia and the Western provinces of China. People in these provinces feel almost no allegiance to the authorities ruling them. In the western provinces of China, there are significant populations that don't speak Chinese and are devoutly Muslim - China is attempting to sort this out by sending Han Chinese from the Eastern provinces out West to populate these areas.

It's a mixed-up world.

Patrick

 

[ERNIEB]

<font color=blue>the Iranians also prefer sometimes to be known as Persians</font color=blue>
When my eldest daughter was in high school, her best friend was a girl from Iran. When asked she would often refer to herself as Persian. I asked her about this, and she told me that since the Embassy take over many Americans had a hostile attitude toward Iranians. She herself had been subject to some of it. She correctly deduced that most Americans did not know that Persia was the old name for Iran, and thought they were two seperate countries./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif She is really a clever girl, well woman now.


Ernie

 

[ChrisR]

Hi All

On the same subject, has anybody read "The Complete Idiots Guide To Middle East Conflict" (Alpha Books)
I found it quite fascinating and extremely informative, It is also written in an unconfusing way. Well worth reading by anyone, who like myself had no idea about that region and it's history.

Regards

Chris