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Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov um, no. The United States is a federal republic. Hardly comparable to an ethnic group that spans multiple national entities and has never shared a common cultural identity as a result. How can you compare Palestinians to the Janjaweed in Sudan for instance? Or the Beduoin to Arab merchants in Oman? You can't -- they come from different historical traditions and have completely distinct cultures apart from their ethnic identity.

So we dont have seperate ethnic groups in America?

I know lebanese, Iranians, and Iraquis here in America and yes, they all have ethnic groups in there. But there is a larger overarching umbrella, that may have much less points of commonality, called Arab that means something. Or are you claiming there are no Arabs?

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Originally posted by Orbax So we dont have seperate ethnic groups in America? I know lebanese, Iranians, and Iraquis here in America and yes, they all have ethnic groups in there. But there is a larger overarching umbrella, that may have much less points of commonality, called Arab that means something. Or are you claiming there are no Arabs?

Lol, I'm stating that American identity is a hell of a lot more significant than "Arab" identity, which doesn't really exist. Pan-Arabism was a movement back in the 60's and 70's that fell on it's face largely because it was unable to bridge cultural divides amongst the Arab ethnic group in the Middle East.

There was no such struggle in the United States, which has a formal process (citizenship) to moderate membership in a structured society. There is and never has been a means for Arabs to share a common identity in such a way, and therefore there has never been any formalized Arab state, culture, history, or tradition. The Middle East is far more localized and fragmented than that.

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Originally posted by Orbax So we dont have seperate ethnic groups in America? I know lebanese, Iranians, and Iraquis here in America and yes, they all have ethnic groups in there. But there is a larger overarching umbrella, that may have much less points of commonality, called Arab that means something. Or are you claiming there are no Arabs?

Oh, and Iranians aren't Arab, they're Persian.

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hmm I dont know if i would say US has been harmoniously one haha. slavery and the civil rights movement and what not.

There are still quite a few groups in the US that dont claim cultural ties to anyone else here.

also arab just means you speak arabic. an "A-rab" like huck finn used to say is probably less an identity than an outsiders perception.

However, to make peace , there was a saying that was written in the Arabic language that said...

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Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov Oh, and Iranians aren't Arab, they're Persian.

Theyre from that area, I was saying I was informed, not that they were arabic

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Originally posted by Orbax hmm I dont know if i would say US has been harmoniously one haha. slavery and the civil rights movement and what not. There are still quite a few groups in the US that dont claim cultural ties to anyone else here.

Well then those groups wouldn't be "American" and American sayings probably wouldn't apply to them anyhow.

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also arab just means you speak arabic. an "A-rab" like huck finn used to say is probably less an identity than an outsiders perception.

Now we agree on something! Yay!

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However, to make peace , there was a saying that was written in the Arabic language that said...

I can live with that.

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peace and lavuuuu