@ChipmunkErnie
Speaking Arabic doesn’t equal being Arab
I meant specifically that Arabs and arabized are different things
If a Japanese tomorrow speaks French doesn’t make them French it makes them a French speaking Japanese
And that doesn’t make sushi French .
Why is an Arabic speaking person an Arab
But a French speaking Lebanese isn’t ethnically French?

I think my post was very clear what was difficult to understand?

@Moon3624 If you don't like the definitions tell the dictionaries, not me. Your post is not difficult to understand, you're trying to distance yourself from certain parts/peoples what most people consider "the Arab World" and claiming some kind of genetic/cultural purity.

@ChipmunkErnie
I am not claiming anything it is the literal truth 🥱
And I am not distancing myself from them or claim superiority
I simply don’t want my identity to be stolen and misrepresented (negatively or positively or neutrally )
I think it’s pretty simple .
If you want to learn about Arabs go to the Arabian peninsula
That is their homeland and where their culture is best represented
You don’t go to a non Arab land that only speaks Arabic because of brief colonialism like Egypt to learn about Arab ethnic group

When you want to learn about Spaniards you go to Spain not Mexico
When you want to learn about French you go to France you don’t go to Djibouti or Lebanon simply because they speak French .


“ and claiming some kind of genetic/cultural purity.”
It’s a fact though 😂

@basilfawlty89 @BohoBabe


This is what I’m saying. The whole idea of an “Arab world” is 20th century nonsense.

It’s actually really harmful to all parties . It hurts the indigenous ethnic groups who are resisting Arabisation, it hurts the Arabized who end up with an identity crisis and end up damaging their own history and tourism sector , and it hurts the real Arabs because our culture and history get altered and misrepresented by the Arabized.

I’m not saying the region should stop speaking Arabic altogether. What I’m saying is don’t claim my ethnic group.

You might think it’s not a big deal, but it is. I did an experiment where I went around asking people to name Arabic foods. Not a single dish they mentioned was Arab.

Some people argue that it’s not just about language, that we also share the same history, and that’s what makes us all “arab” .

Umm not really. The Middle East including the Arabian Peninsula was only united for about 30 years under the Rashidun Caliphate. After that, during the Arab Umayyads and Abbasids caliphates , the Arabian Peninsula was pretty much self-governed by different tribes. It was a totally different situation compared to the Levant, Iraq, and North Africa, which were directly ruled by those arab empires.

Then when the Abbasids fell in 1200s , Arab expansion and Arabisation in the MENA region ended. Turks and others took over and the Arabian Peninsula went back to full scale self-rule, divided into different regions and mini states and tribal confederations .


Soooo we don’t even share the same history.

That’s why I find it funny when people say “ the Ottomans ruled over Arabs.”

They didn’t. They ruled over the Arabized, not the real Arabs. The Ottomans barely touched the Arabian Peninsula. The only part they influenced was the west coast, and even then it wasn’t direct it was the Hashemites in power, using Ottoman protection to keep other tribes away.

So again, the Arabized even rewrite our history and portray our history in a misleading manner.

We don’t share the same history, let alone the same DNA or culture.

That’s why I laugh when someone from the Levant calls for “Arab unity.” I tell them we already achieved it. Saudi Arabia coveres about 80% of the Arabian Peninsula, and the rest like Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and the others are our allies. We have strong economic and military ties. Isn’t that Arab unity in practice? The only exception is Yemen, and even there it’s mainly the Houthi problem in the north.

So the irony is that Arabs actually have achieved unity in the modern era, and we’re in our prime right now in terms of unity and prosperity.
But noooooo it’s all portrayed differently because the arabized have seized not only our identity but the Arab narrative as a whole.

@basilfawlty89
Yes they are.

@LeopoldBloom But it was in Spain where the Sephardis as an ethnic group evolved. So they're still seen as Spanish Jews, the same way an Arab-American may be seen as Arabic while speaking only English.
Ethnicity is complicated, there's really no set definition for what makes a person part of an ethnic group. It's not like having citizenship where it's a clear yes or no.

@BohoBabe It's a complex relationship, as the Sephardic identity did arise in Spain, but while it was under Moorish domination, so the distinction between Spanish and Arabic Jews wasn't as clear as it later became in the 19th and 20th centuries. After the 1492 expulsion, most Sephardic Jews ended up in North Africa and the Middle East, and many Mizrahi communities adopted Sephardic liturgy, so the distinction isn't as clear as it is between them and the Ashkenazi.

@LeopoldBloom So there ya go, some Jews are Hispanic and Arabic. 😮

There's a common joke among the children of Turkish immigrants in Berlin. "The Germans think we're Turks, the Turks think we're Germans."
So it's not uncommon for two ethnic groups to kinda meld together and create a third group with its own culture and identity.

@LeopoldBloom
True the Middle East / the Mena region is diverse.

The idea of this “Arab world “ is harmful to the indigenous populations who are resisting arabisation , the arabized themselves with their identity crisis and constant contradictions , and the Arabians who have their identity misrepresented and stolen by the arabized.

@Moon3624 People use "Arab" as shorthand to cover Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, UAE, Yemen, Djibouti, and Saudi. I suppose you could say "Middle Easterners" which would include Israel, Palestinians, and I guess Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, which are neither Arab nor Arabized.

Or MENA which includes North Africans.