Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jad Baaklini (talk | contribs) at 20:04, 2 July 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

There is a "user page" with basically the same content but reworded and Ibrahim for the patriarch's name. If a contributory wants to take the user name Arab, I have no problem with that, but let's not confuse a user page with an article page. Ed Poor, Wednesday, April 10, 2002

The following text was moved from user:Arab because it seems more like it applies to the Arab article than to a Misplaced Pages contributor. Ed Poor

Arab (noun) - descibes a person of Arabic descent.

Historically, an Arab is descendant from one of two sons of the Prophet Ibrahim. The other son's linage is claimed by the Jews

Haisam - please don't copy and paste that text from again - that page is copyrighted, and so we can't reproduce it here. See Misplaced Pages:Copyrights. You're free to weave in the info on that page of course, but you have to do it in an original way, rather than simply copying it across. --Camembert

Original Message --------

Camembert:

Here's the authorization to use the definition:

Message-ID: <025c01c2aa9d$43a0e340$7201a8c0@adc.org> From: Marvin Wingfield <marvinw@adc.org> To: <haisam@ido.org> Subject: Definition of Arab Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 11:03:51 -0500

Mr. Ido:

I am not quite clear as to what you are asking. You are free to used the ADC definition. It is the ordinary agreed on definition. An Arab is someone whose primary language is Arabic, who shares in the common culture and history of the Arab world.

User:haisam

Hm. I see no indication that the person you contacted is aware of the ramifications of placing their text under terms of the GFDL. This is very different than a one time grant to use the text (which is implied in the message). If the it is OK for us to use it then please integrate the text into the current article and don't replace it. --mav 23:29 Dec 23, 2002 (UTC)

The Berber peoples of North Africa, for example, though often called Arabs by Westerners, are connected to Arabia only by often speaking Arabic as a second language, since that remains the official language of the country in which they live as a result of the Arab expansion.

Never have I heard anyone refer to the Berbers as being Arabs. Should this be removed?

Racially, an Arab is a person of Arabic descent, whose original ancestry comes from the Arabian Peninsula. Arabs are a Semitic people, who trace their ancestry from the ancient patriarch Abraham.

I don't see how this makes sense. The Arabs are racially very mixed, as they're descended from a mixture of conquored/assilimated peoples and millions of slaves from throughout the Old World.

Arabs are racially classified as White.

Um. Which classification scheme are we using here? Because by language, Arabs are Semitic, as the article makes clear; by "race", they are "white", yes, but we all know how much that means. --Mirv 08:43, 24 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Definition of Arab

such as the Maronite Christian Arabic-speakers of Lebanon, or the Arabic-speaking Copts of Egypt, or Arabic-speaking Jews, reject this definition, wishing to identify not with a group defined by language but with a narrower one defined by religion or shared communal history.

Huh? First of all, the classification of "Arab" is not based on language (at least, not anymore...there was a period when this kind of Arab Nationalism was popular during the Ottomon period, but not anymore). Second, only an extreme fringe of Civil War-period Maronites reject the label of "Arab". I myself am a "Maronite Christian Arabic-speaker of Lebanon" and I take offence at such a claim. The only real, modern definition of an Arab is someone who is a citizen of an Arab League nation. --Jad 13:03, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

• Hi Jad. Though I wrote most of that paragraph, I sympathise with some of your objections to it... I mentioned that some Maronites reject the label "Arab" because I've actually talked to several such people; but I agree, we should make it much clearer that this is an extremist minority. As for the "Arab = speaker of Arabic", though, I think that makes a lot more sense than "Arab = citizen of Arab League nation"; if you call a Berber or a Dinka or a Kurd "Arab", the substantial majority of them (though not all) would strongly disagree, and conversely, the Arab minority in southern Iran or southeastern Turkey or Chad is no less Arab for having happened to fall outside the borders of the Arab League. - Mustafaa 19:10, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

• • True, but I think we need to add both definitions: the sociopolitical as well as the ethnoliguistic, because, as you just pointed out, neither is enough as a definition. Maybe we should distinguish between Arab peoples and Arabic peoples, the first refering to the political definition, and the second referring to the linguistic definition. In this way, the minorities in Iran, Turkey and Chad would be Arabic minorities, and not Arab. I know that this may seem like a frustrating play in semantics, but I think that its the only way to deal with the two point of views while mantaining NPOV. Is that alright with you?

So, why don't you expand the part on the minorities within Arab nations, and add that part on Arabic minorities within non-Arab nations?