An Arab

 

 

I think some confusion may exist. I've heard quite a few people cussin' "Arabs" this last week. I asked one or two of them, "What is an Arab?", and I received some startling replies like, "You know, them Moslems." Actually the greatest concentration of Moslems in the world, I believe, is in Indonesia, and those people have very little in common with the nineteen or so WTC hijackers or even the one thousand or so who formed their support group here in the US.

The dictionary is of very little help. Webster's Encyclopaedic Unabridged Dictionary defines an Arab as "Any of a group of Semitic people inhabiting Arabia and parts of North Africa". Well that leaves out the Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Kashmiris, Afghans, Sudanese, Somalis, Indonesians, Malays. Yet it could include the Berbers and Tauregs who have their own gripes but would be horrified to be included with the other group. I have a few books on Arab history one of which defines an Arab as "any one who speaks Arabic as their native language". Well, maybe. But that would include the Omanis, the Saudis, the Jordanians and the Lebanese and those who live in the Trucial Emirates, who for the most part are on our side in this debacle. Actually who we are mad at right now is al Qaeda (probably misspelled, I have never seen it in print), an organization of terrorists drawn from here there and yon and headquartered in forty or fifty countries including the US.

The Bedu, or nomadic peoples, of Saudi Arabia claim to be the only true Arabs, and that the fellahin, who live in the cities and the oases are foreigners. "Arab" is a funny word and it doesn't mean the same thing to everyone.

I am not trying to be smart-ass. Who do you mean when you say Arab?