Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
i
Whoooops. Well, still it's good to get it out there because people for some reason think that Turks, Iranians, Pakistanis, etc are Arab when they are not. They are Muslim majority, but that is different.
To answer the question, for me at least this is how I think of it:
1. Saudi/UAE/Kuwait/Qatari
2. Egyptian/Yemeni/Palestinian
3. Lebanese/Iraqi/Syrian/Jordanian
4. North African i.e. Morocco, Libya, Tunisian
5. "Arab" Jews living in Israel
I think it comes on image though. Traditional Saudis, UAE, etc look like what the stereotype is of people who look different in their dress and their faces even. For people in say Lebanon and Morocco, they are different in that they are more liberal and looks wise they look like a mix between Arab and European (you could say this about some Jordanian, Syria, and Palestinian too) and can sometimes easily be mistaken for European Mediterranean nationalities and sometimes even Spanish or Portuguese.
Saudi Arabia. It's kind of in the name. Also there are a lot more groups in the Middle East than Arabs. Some of the conflicts that went on between Middle Easter countries kind of came from British colonialism ending. They divided everything up that way and when they left the people fought based on cultural lines. If I were in charge of mid-east policy I'd seek the establishment of countries based a little bit more on ethnic background. It would at least be interesting to see what the map would look like that way.
First country that comes to mind is Saudi Arabia, mainly due to the name. Areas from Morocco to Iraq as well as the entirety of the Arabian peninsula, I imagine as part of the Arab world.
Arabs were originally the bedouin from the Arab peninsula, so I'd think of Saudi Arabia then the neighboring Gulf States and then Jordan.
The countries of the Levant have a more diverse history--so Syria and Lebanon(and Palestine) I always think of being somewhat different--along with Egypt. Once you get into North Africa you have a lot of Berber heritage. A place like Iraq is basically a hodgepodge of different ethnic groups(including the definitely non-Arab kurds).
The Arab world itself, is more a cultural/linguistic region than one solid ethnicity--it'd sort of be like if the French had conquered all of Western Europe at one point, and French basically became the language spoken by the majority of groups to this day...
I always think everyone from the middle East are Arabs... However I was told by someone that Persians are not Arabs ?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
