● If Arabs are from Arabia, how did lands from west Africa to Iran
become occupied almost exclusively by Arabs?
● Aren't the Arabs just people of many ethnicities who simply use
Arabic as their mother tongue?
● But aren't there Christian Arabs? Christians in the Middle East who
speak only Arabic, like in Lebanon and Palestine?
● Isn't the Arab world a romantic place, like in 'Arabian Nights'; aren't
Arabs a peaceful, hospitable people?
● What are the factors retarding Arab progress?
If Arabs are from Arabia, how did lands from west Africa to Iran
become occupied almost exclusively by Arabs?
● For several centuries after its advent, Islam was an alibi for Arab
imperialism. And it was an imperialism of a type which the world had
not known so far. The Arabs not only imposed their ruthless rule and
totalitarian creed on the countries they conquered; they also
populated these countries with a prolific progeny whch they
procreated on native women. Every Arab worth his race 'married'
scores, sometimes hundreds of these helpless women after their
menfolk had all been killed. Divorce of a wedded wife had been made
very easy by the 'law' of Islam. A man could go on marrying and
divorcing at the rate of several women during the span of a single
day and night. What was more convenient, there was no restriction
on the number of concubines a man could keep. The Arab
Conquerors used these male privileges in full measure. And in a
matter of a hundred years, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt and North
Africa which had been non-Arab countries for countless ages became
Arabic-speaking countries. Arabic did not spread like English, French
or other similar languages that spread through commercial and
diplomatic excellence of the lending nation and filtered through the
top strata of the receiving: countries. Arabic was injected through all
strata of the conquered population which did not have much choice in
● "Arabs used Islam for conquering half the world & for creating an
Arab Empire thus making Islam a trade mark of Arabs."
Aren't the Arabs just people of many ethnicities who simply use
Arabic as their mother tongue?
"I will make him a great nation." As the Jewsare a nation of twelve
tribes, the Arabs are also a nation of twelve tribes, in the Old
Testament, today, and in Messiah's Kingdom. Are Ishmael's people
still a "nation?" If not, God lied. Anyone who has studied the Arab
mind and politics knows that all of the Arab national leaders expound
on and on about "The Arab Nation." No other group of nations talks
this way. Shut off from the outside world by the sea and the peril of
the desert around them, the Arabs are the purest racein the world,
even purer than the Jews, many of whom have blond hair and blue
eyes.
● Founded in 1940 by the Syrian intellectuals Michel Aflaq and Salah al-
Din al-Baitar, the Harakat al-Baath al-Arabi, or Movement of the Arab
Baath, had gained sizable popularity in Iraq by 1952. This doctrine,
an unusual combination of Marxist, Hegelian, and nationalist
ideologies united under the banner of Arab ethnicity, not only
originated outside the traditional circles of Arab politics; it formed a
comprehensive ideology for the Middle East, a rarity among the
● Most Saudis are ethnically Arab. Some are of mixed ethnic origin and
are descended from Turks, Iranians, Indonesians, Indians, Africans,
and others, most of whom immigrated as pilgrims and reside in the
Hijaz region along the Red Sea coast. Many Arabs from nearby
countries are employed in the kingdom.
● THE KEY to this history is that the Sudanese are not ethnically Arab,
even though the country is within the realm of Arab civilization. As
their dark skin attests, the Sudanese are Africans of diverse ethnic
stock. Many Egyptians make a similar disclaimer of Arabism, insisting
they are Africans of Pharaonic descent, a distinction that the eye
confirms. But the Arab conquest of Egypt, which was then Christian,
took place less than a decade after the death of the Prophet
Muhammad, meaning that Egyptian society has been Arabized for
more than thirteen hundred years.
● In Lebanon, Christianity is still strong, but the civil war, the divisions
between the various Christian groups, the complications brought
about by the proximity to Israel, the harsh militancy of the Maronites-
especially their military arm, the Phalange-and the perception of the
Muslims that the Christians are not Arabs make it hard for Lebanese
Christians to look to the future with hope.
...In the great struggle between the Israelis and the Arabs, the Arab
Christians seem a historical curiosity, finding a place on neither side
of the divide. To the Israelis they are Arabs, to the Arab Muslims
they are Christians-and to Westerners they are invisible.
● For years, the term "Arab Christians" was used to categorize the
Christians in the Middle East. However, the concept instead of being
precisely defined was intellectually misused and politically abused.
Both Arab regimes and "Arabists" in the West attempted to libel all
Christians living under the sovereignty of Arab states, as "Arab
Christians."
Those same cynics often hark back to Albert Hourani and numberless
Arabist and self-effacing dhimmi Arabist sympathizers to stultify the
audacious national awakening of Lebanon's Christians (and that is
valid and legitimate, one might add) but Hourani does not have a
monopoly on truth and objectivity, and nor is he the sole authority
on the topic of minority nationalisms. He is a distinguished scholar of
the Middle East to be sure, but he is the Briton par excellence; he
was member of the British Foreign Office for most of his life, and
although at time sympathetic to the plight of Middle Eastern minority
groups, he remained at heart a proponent of the idea of secular Arab
nationalism; an idea which for all intents and purposes died in its
cradle... In fact, later in his writings, Hourani would expound the
notion of an inherent tautology between Arabism and Islam;
ultimately, he saw Islam as a 'national religion' which not only united
the Arabs into a community [Umma] but also galvanized them and
gave them culture, history, language, national pride and identity. So
he was, in essence, saying that one cannot be an Arab without being
a Muslim. Even Michel Aflaq, the quintessential architect of 'secular'
Arab nationalism and the prime ideologue of the Baath Party, would
acquiesce at the end of his life in the intimate correlation between
Arabism and Islam, prompting him to convert to Islam so that he
may truly become an Arab.
● "The Arab world is a sink of corruption and ... the most appalling and
murderous tyrannies."
● Arabs are "wild" in that they cannot be tamed. To many ancient and
modern Arabs, war and fighting is good recreation. It may be fierce
in the morning, and by evening all participants will sit down to
coffee.
..."His hand will be against every man" The Arabs have a proverb, "I
and my brothers and my cousins against the stranger; I and my
brothers against my cousin; I, against my brothers." Living in the
deserts of Arabia for all those years required the Arab to be strong in
self-defense. There were no police, so justice was, and still is, by
revenge. To forgo revenge would mean to be a coward and lose
authority in one's acre, and the whole of Arabia is every Arab's acre
to claim if he can take it. The royal family of Saudi Arabia is simply a
1990s version of some ordinary wandering Bedhoin, the Bani Saud,
who rode out of the past and who conquered best. Anwar Sadat
found out the hard way, as did King Faisal, that Arabs still don't like
to be humbled. This is also why the Arab always extends the right
hand to serve or greet his guests in order to show that he has no
malice.
...The British tried to conquer Egypt, and the result was that Arabia
conquered England. How? Emin Pasha was supposed to be German,
but he became so Arabized that no Europeans could be certain of his
loyalties. The Englishman, Lawrence of Arabia, turned Arab to the
core, and today Islam is conquering Great Britain where they have
made many converts to Islam and built the world's second grandest
mosque. I say old man, who conquers whom?
● No matter what its wealth or powers, the Arab world will never
flourish as long as it claims it is being victimized by Israel, since
every attribution of blame to the Jews postpones the possibility of
Arab progress and self-improvement.