Job Discussion Forums

[007]

[Gulezar]

"ALL the Muslims I have met from the Middle East, without fail ... ", but for me the statement seemed a bit odd. You've been reminded that Kurds, Iranian and Berbers (who apparently you have never met) are Muslims and that language, culture or "blood" might define this group, and not only religion. I hope you've been enlightened. I certainly have learned that one doesn't need to disccus such questions with those who have already made their minds up on a question before they ask it. Oh, yes there is a small population of Kuwaiti Jews, too. Where would you like to put them?

[scot47]

Asking querstions is the easy bit. Finding answers is the problem.

But my question is,"Why do you ask ?"

[redeyes]

Scot, check PM's.

RE

[sheikh radlinrol]

[Stephen Jones]

Frankly, redeyes, your insistence on this is bizarre.

With regard to Lebanese Christians I hope I have explained it. They are deliberately distancing themselves from Muslims and Palestinians.

With regard to Jews there is a virulent controversy as to whether Judaism spread as a result of exile or conversion. The fact that the language of most Sephardi Jews, ladino, is a dialect of Spanish pushes the debate back a few hundred years, but it's still there.

As has been pointed out 'Arab' is a most peculiar term; it describes a language but not an ethnicity, even though most speakers of the language seem to be genetically close. And of course it is used to refer to people from the Arabian peninsula, and from a much wider swathe of land including most of North Africa (and let's not open the can of worms of 'Arabs' in the Sudan).

And then there is the political influence of pan-Arabism, which was very strong in the sixties.

[matthew156]

Must have been the original language of ancient babyl
anyways it seems were heading for that time again with the push of English as an International Language or lingua franca. But I believe if the emperor of China, back in the 1400s, hadn't abandoned his trade routes in the Indian Ocean and the east coast of Africa we would have all been teaching Chinese as an International Language.

Well come to think of it we may be in a couple of decades anyways

Matt

[redeyes]

Sjones wrote -- "Frankly, redeyes, your insistence on this is bizarre."

Stephen, since I honestly didn't know why some ME Xtians and ME ( not Ashkenazi) Jews I have known or worked with, refused and rejected being considered Arab, I made an open question to those who I thought would know -- I am not "insisting" on anything. What is so bizarre about posing an open question? What is it you think I am "insisting on"? Maybe you see a ( trolling) provocative motive in my posts which frankly isn't there.

My post was made in exactly the same spirit as someone who queries what it means to be British. What defines Britishness? -- is that a bizarre question?

Not all of us who post here have worked in the ME for years and years as many of the board regulars have, and thus not all of us know these finer points of ethnic/political affiliation and definition -- What seems like a very obvious question to you, may not be to others.

Anyway, thanks for the answers -- now I do know.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]