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[redeyes]

Ostensibly, it seems like a ludicrous question -- but it's one I'd like to ask people about.

So -- When is an Arab an Arab? And when is someone who has lived in the Middle East for thousands of years -- not an Arab and why not? Is "Arab" then, synonymous with "Muslim" in the ME?

The questions arises in my mind, because in my 20 years in EFL, I have taught many people from the Middle East of all three Abrahamic faiths and sometimes been surprised at who doesn't like the tag, "Arab" :

Now, let's start off from the premise that 3,000 years ago, the vast majority of people in those areas now called the Middle East, Levant or Gulf would have been either Jewish,heathen or pagans -- after the arrival of Christ's doctrine, then many of those same pagans and Jews in those same areas would have become Christian over the centuries, due to either social or economic or political pressures.

After that as we know after the time of Mohamed, there was a mass swelling of the numbers of Muslims who were excellent proselytisers and powerful conquerors. So, huge numbers of those who had been Jews, Pagans or Christians in those very same areas -- would have converted willingly as an economic, social move, or been compelled to convert by force.

However --- all the Middle Eastern Jews I have met from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, without exception-- would never dream of calling themselves Arabs -- even though their ancestors too , feasibly may have been Muslims or Christians at some time in their history,and they are certainly from the same gene pool as their Muslim and Christian brethren ,having lived in the same areas for thousands of years.

Many of the Christians I know from the Middle East seem very uncomfortable indeed being called Arabs -- and many clearly see themselves and their history as something very distinct from the term "Arab." I know Lebanese Christians who take real offence at being called Arabs, even though they too are certainly from the same gene pool as their Muslim and Jewish brethren in the very same areas.

But of course, ALL the Muslims I have met from the Middle East, without fail, are happy to call themselves Arabs -- of course they are. Why would they want to deny such an obvious , self evident thing?

But -- between a hundred and five hundred years ago or more -- those very same Arab Muslims -- are highly likely to have been Jews, pagans or Christians who had been forced to convert.

You see my point? Why are Middle Eastern Jews and Christians so rejecting of the tag "Arab" -- whilst Muslims immediately accept it -- even if those very same Muslims who accept it as self evident had surely been Jewish or Christian themselves a few hundred years ago?

So -- When is an Arab an Arab? And when,and why, is someone who has lived in the Middle East for thousands of years -- not an Arab? Is it a shifting defintion, depending on political flux and affiliation?

[Stephen Jones]

Lebanese Christians always claim their country is the Levant, and are most miffed about it being incorporated into the Middle East when they weren't looking.

Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Iraqi Christians obviously consider themselves Arab. Some Egyptian Copts might claim they were Egyptian, not Arab, but so presumably would some Egyptian Moslems.

[007]

[jdl]

When he says he is, Bubba.

[veiledsentiments]

An Arab is anyone whose native tongue is Arabic when we use the term in English. So, I think it is an outside term that concerns us while it concerns them not at all.

I found that many Muslim Egyptians considered themselves Egyptians, not Arabs. When I questioned this, they said that "Arabs" were those that lived in the "Arabian peninsula." The same with the rest of North Africa that speaks Arabic, but they are Africans. (something it is rare to have an Egyptian claim ownership of)

Most of the Levant could be considered the northern reaches of the Arabian peninsula... and we all know about the Lebanese permutations of identity.

VS

[jdl]

All settled then.

[scot47]

Ethnicity is one of those questions that gets more complicated the more you look at it. "What is an Arab ?" "Who is English ?" is another good one. And as for "British" that is a huge can of worms.

By the way, Furtive Feline 007, "British" is an adjective. The substantive in Modern English is "Briton" - although never used. In colloquial langiage there is "Brit", first used in Northern Irealnd as a derogatory term.

So we can say "He is British" but not "He is a British".

the same applies to "Irish"

"He is an Irish" is not correct !

[007]