Arabs.. How do You See Them?

Hey..
I'm really interested in knowing other people's honest opinions towards Arabs.

~ Abed.

Don't know any.

Like any other group it's impossible to generalize, must be on a case by case basis. Some people even overgeneralize as to who is an Arab. I have Persian friends and Pakistani who people call Arabs; even a friend whose ancestry is Indian -Muslim through South Africa, likewise called Arab.

As to whatever answer I can give, there is a family of Palestinians of whom I greatly respect the mother, love the children (8), and like but have learned not to trust the father. My favorite teacher in undergraduate was a Jordanian who was both brilliant and humorous. My friends who are Arabis run from devout to secular and from respectful to others to selfish. There is no generalization possible.

"Like any other group it's impossible to generalize, must be on a case by case basis. Some people even overgeneralize as to who is an Arab."

That's what I was going to write, but Larry got to it first.

Larry said it best.

Everyone in this world has the capacity to be kind, loving, generous just the same spiteful, rude, full of hate and obnoxious. I think the way people are has everything to do with who they are over their culture. With that it's hard for me personally to judge anyone other then the person themselves. I do think language barriers can at times cause one to misinterpret what is being said, and is taken the wrong way.

A huge however I should throw in here. I think with any culture you may enter (country) you should know and understand their customs. Somethings you do that are fine in 'America' may be viewed as insulting in another country/to another culture. Although I know what i just said in this paragraph has nothing to do with the OP just thought I'd throw that in there. Where I'm from it's not ok to demand things, it's seen as being very rude and 'demanding' (eg Tell me NOW!) It causes one to think "who do this person think they are?". I know my husband just had a huge company meeting about clients they had coming in from Korea. They were told what is respectful and what isn't in Korean culture.

People, I love your thoughts and opinions..

I go with Sir Larry, too :D

You can gain some insight to your question by testing people with the riddle:

What do you call an Arab flying a plane?

If they don't answer with "pilot" straight away, they're trying not to sound racist. Which is exactly what the joke is supposed to achieve.

I am all for spiritual cleansing which allows for rebirth . Many people like to generalize people by race , creed and even gender . The animal kingdom seems to favor the survival of the fittest and the Heavenly Kingdom that should not discriminate any sons of God has a very long history of doing so. I cannot help but believe the God of Abraham loves his children equally, though the scribes of all history seem to be heavily influenced by religious zealots. We are all brothers in spirit and share so much in common in this so called common era.

LOL @ abracadabra.. this is witty :p

--

I don't think that joke is much of a litmus test for determining who is racist and who is not, unless its purpose is to show that all of us have latent racist tendencies... which I happen to believe.

I live near Detroit, which has the largest Arab population outside of the middle east. There are large groups of both Muslims and Chaldeans near me. I've never had a problem with any of them, and most of the Arab people I've known would give you the shirt off their backs.

My mother, however, has a different view. She is convinced that the Muslims are trying to take over the world.

If I asked you what you call a cat that coverts to Islam and you said Yusuf Islam I would not say you were a racist. You may call me a far left lunatic, but I strongly support freedom of religion . A popular spokesmen for the far right maintains that racism can only pertain to race and not to creed . Could someone explain the genetics of racial prejudice to me ?

http://youtu.be/MshbaZqjDm4

Nothing But the Whole Wide World
http://youtu.be/NC0-L6C-kmo

"Could someone explain the genetics of racial prejudice to me ?"

I think racism is a product of fear and anger, which result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. But you'd need a genetecist and a psychologist to tell you the specifics.

I liked that Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) video.

Kiko.. omg, yes I believe every human being has a tendency to being a racist. It doesn't matter if it's in his/her behavior.. thoughts also!

and another omg, because most Moslims believe Christians and especially USA is going to take all over the world...

LOL

Michael..

I cannot agree more! I mean, @ schools and homes, parents.. and teachers tell us that you shouldn't tell or negotiate about your religion, because here in Lebanon, we have 2 religions (70% Moslims, 30% Christians) and more than 16 different sects!

I'm proud of telling everyone I'm a Moslim. I'm proud to tell everyone I'm a Sunni.
What's the problem with that?

So, indeed I, too, support the freedom of religion!
Though, there are many countries that are racists with its systems....................... Everybody knows!

Racial prejudice?

All I know about races is that the Prophet "Noah" had two sons (or maybe more) :p "Sam" (white) and "H'am" (black) .... And every son went in a different direction.. I think tht's when it all started :p ??

I have no idea, lol :p

I keep on coming to see what's up with this thread, so I might as well comment. There was a similar thread before, I think it was about how intimidating muslims are to non muslims... but this thread is about arabs, and that's one misconception, that arabs are muslims and it went straight there.
Anyway, I am also one of the many arabs here on P&Q, I think right here we get along well, which probably shows how open-minded and accepting we are of each other. I think as we develop it changes and people become closer and see each other as human beings rather than all the human sections there are whether religious, racial, ethnic or economic... Still there are times where we "gang up" together and only our race is the one which deserves to live, especially when terrorism gets in the mix. No matter what we always tend to generalize when something happens more than once. This is what happened with 9/11, the islamic fetoohat, the christian crusades, the invasions of the west... This is how people become racists, because they see something and generalize upon what they see. In the end people do come to their senses, which is what happened after the bombings in Norway.... But do we really need a loss this big to come to our senses?

Today I made the thread Daily Quote: Dalai Lama XIV with a quote from the Dalai Lama and a small synopsis. Though I got all the information I needed I continued my reading. In my research I found these two paragraphs that caught my attention and interest:

"In 1981, His Holiness talked with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, and with other leaders of the Anglican Church in London. He also met with leaders of the Roman Catholic and Jewish communities and spoke at an interfaith service in his honour by the World Congress of Faiths. His talk focused on the commonality of faiths and the need for unity among different religions: 'I always believe that it is much better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophies, rather than one single religion or philosophy. This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one's own faith.' "

"During his travels abroad, His Holiness has spoken strongly for better understanding and respect among the different faiths of the world. Towards this end, His Holiness has made numerous appearances in interfaith services, imparting the message of universal responsibility, love, compassion and kindness. "The need for simple human-to-human relationships is becoming increasingly urgent... Today the world is smaller and more interdependent. One nation's problems can no longer be solved by itself completely. Thus, without a sense of universal responsibility, our very survival becomes threatened. Basically, universal responsibility is feeling for other people's suffering just as we feel our own. It is the realization that even our enemy is entirely motivated by the quest for happiness. We must recognize that all beings want the same thing that we want. This is the way to achieve a true understanding, unfettered by artificial consideration.' "

This speaks volumes to me. I think his positive messages are something we can all benefit from and that we can pass down to children for future generations to come.

"unless its purpose is to show that all of us have latent racist tendencies"

Yes, Kiko, it is. Hence the last sentence in my last post. Hence the reason it's a joke. Many jokes employ this same device of stereotyping. This shows how humans generally think and react to generalisation. Even if we're against it, we still do it.

Arabs are hot, musky, sensual, ancient, passionate people.

Sometimes.

Dark Secrets..

YES! - I haven't mentioned Moslims here..

People should know that there are 22 Arabian countries.
--- Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, & Sudan--- are the almost only Arab countries that have Christians.

And I didn't mean Moslims only. Arabs are both.

I agree with you.
The biggest spark of religious prejudice was in the September 9 accident.

Actually, there are at least six religions currently practiced by the Arab people (or having Arabic roots), with Islam being the predominant religion.

Judaism
Baha'i
Christianity
Druze
Islam
Zoroastrianism

"most Moslims believe Christians and especially USA is going to take all over the world... "

I think that has already happened:

We Americans: consume your natural resources
poison your air with our factories and cars
poison your mind with our Hollywood movies
poison your stomache with our McDonald's hamburgers
and most of the world speaks our language

What more can we do to you??

Britain spoke English before Americans were Americans, so its not totally our fault. And, no one is forcing anyone to watch movies or eat McDonald's :)

Zoroastrianism
Baha'i
Druze
--------------- These are nt religions. They are sects!---

The two religions are ISLAM and CHRISTIANITY .. the rest are sects belonging to these two..
and JUDAISM isn't found anymore in the Arab world :D

* LOL.. I don't know what's more.. these are enough :P

Judaism isn't a sect of Christianity..? Is it? Never thought it was lol

Sorry lol :p

i copied these names ..

Judaism isn't found in any of Arab countries.
Well, there were Jews in some of Arab countries (Middle Eastern & Egypt specifically)..

But when the Zionists founded Israel, all Jews migrated there!!

LP, I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but Zoroastrianism, Baha'i and Druze are independent religions. Zoroastrianism has been around for hundreds of years before either Christianity or Islam. Even a lot of Sufis consider themselves independent from traditional Islam, although technically, they are considered a sect.

Christianity could actually be considered a sect of Judaism, since all Christians believe in the old testament. But Judaism could never be a sect of Christianity, since Jews do not believe in the new testament.

I'm pretty sure there are a few pockets of Jews still living in Arab countries, such as Egypt and Syria. As for the "migration" of Jews to Israel, many sources would say that the Jews were forcibly expelled from those countries. But let's not get into another Arabs vs. Jews debate.

Britt, my previous post about the US having taken over the world was mostly tongue-in-cheek :)

Zionism as a political movement started in 1897 and supported a 'national home', and later a state, for the Jewish people in Palestine. The Zionist movement declared the re-establishment of its State of Israel in 1948, following the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine
New York City: Right-wing Zionist witch-hunt ousts principal of new Arabic school
By Steve Light
1 September 2007
A reactionary campaign based on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry in New York City has forced the resignation of the Muslim-American principal of a newly created charter school that offered education in Arabic language and culture.
Debbie Almontaser, the principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), scheduled to open in September in New York City, was hounded out of her job by means of a media furor whipped up by right-wing and Zionist groups. The immediate pretext for her ouster was her failure to immediately condemn another Arab-American group, with no connection to the school, for producing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan NYC. The word Intifada is associated with the Palestinian campaign of popular resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza

We need poets like Gibran to sort the truth without prejudging any race creed or sex in this conflict of right and left. We cannot clap with one hand no more than we can fly with one wing .

It seems there is more the race than true colors
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Map showing the distribution of Semitic languagesIn linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Hebrew: , translated as "name", Arabic: was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, Tigre and Tigrinya among others.

"Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert. "
Khalil Gibran

Kiko I know, I was kidding too :p

Judaism literally means Christians from Judea...

"all of us have latent racist tendencies... which I happen to believe."

Totally.

Not wanting to be racist doesn't mean you're not racist, unfortunately.

Kiko.. Druze & Bahai's have similar rituals as Sunnas and Shiites.. (I know myself from my neighbors, and from the Druze that occupy a wide region of Mount Lebanon!)

Therefore, they aren't considered a religion, unless some of their followers are saying so! -- too bad..

Second therefore, they are Islam sects :D
----------------------------------------------------
and Hey, how could Judaism be a Christianity sect, when Christianity was founded after Judaism???

Saudi's in Audis.

Enough said... recommend youtube.

I have friends working in jeddah they said that they we're so strict?

Saudi's are very strict... they are not the only Arabs in the world. I mean when I went to omra (migration to Mekka, like a small version of haj) and when I went to visit the shrine of prophet Mohammed, I always ran into someone who preached me to cover my face >< and covering your face is not a manditory thing in Islam. Still, not all Saudi's are strict... there are a lot of Saudi singers and actors.