EXPERT: Why Chaldean's from any Middle Eastern Country Are Arab

[Hadeer]

Well, since so many people tried to prove me wrong, it’s my turn to give you the words of a person probably more educated than everyone else here. These are the words of my Arabic language professor, who has his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and African Studies as well as multiple bachelor’s degrees in Arabic, ESL, Pedagogy as well as other areas including teaching. He created the Arabic program at my university about 11 years ago, and has been teaching longer. This is his response to when I asked him if Chaldeans are Arab. I’ll put it in a list:

-A common misconception is that Arab means only Muslim. That is a fallacy, as you will see later.

-Another misconception is that Arab is directly affiliated to religion.

-He also told me that Chaldeans withdrawing from the Arab identity is a Detroit Phenomenon, and a similar view is not held in the Middle East as it is strongly evident here. Yep, everyone here has contributed their part of that false phenomenon. Congratulations.

-Also, he made an analogy. He asked me if I was American, and I said of course! And then he asked me why, and I said because I was born and raised in the United States. It does not automatically mean I am a certain religion or race.

-In class, he told us that even though the Middle Eastern (with North Africa) countries are considered by the rest of the world as separate and individual countries, those who actually live there identify as one, the doual arabia (Arabic Countries), in the same sense as states in the United States are comprised of. Although there occasionally occurs problems within Arab Countries, they are still part of one. Going back, he said anyone who lives there is considered Arab. Remember, Arab is not a classification made by the Muslim religion.

-Chad (a country diagonally underneath Egypt) is not a member of the Arab league, but they are more “Arab” per say than the official Arab country of Somalia. But Chadian’s are able to designate themselves as Arab, due to the following:

-My professor told me that if anyone feels a Nationalism for the doual arabia (Arabic Countries) or Arab identity, then they are and can designate themselves as Arab. That means if their heart tells them they are Arab, then they are Arab. Obviously, they need roots from one of the 22 approved nations of the Arab League’s official “Middle East.”

- Then he proceeded to tell me that he knows many Chaldeans who rather identify themselves as Arab, because Arab denotes a current geographical location regardless of past history and that the term Chaldean has a religious connotation, and that there is no land clearly defined as “Chaldean.” Remember, a nationality is not made of religion. It is made up through the usage of geographical points, and the doual arabia are considered one, so alongside the respective country's identity (i.e. Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Lebanese), they also all share the identity as Arab.

-Lastly, he said even if I was the only Chaldean to stand up and consider myself Arab, then that does not mean I am wrong.

My professor has the credentials to say what he said and he has the credibility to back up his words, and he is speaking logically. Anyone who lives/lived/or has roots in a country certified as a Middle East Arab Country by the Arab League, then they are technically Arab.

Bottom Line: If you consider yourself Arab, you are Arab. And no one has the right to tell you otherwise, since they do not define you.

Thank You, come again.

Hmmm

Lazim a ****-er bil salfa


Btw, ****-er means "to think about" in arabic lmao

[proudchaldean]

Which teacher said that?

THE ALBINO HAS SPOKEN...!

[missbaghdad]

He's arriving at his theory based on a certain definition of the word "Arab". "Arab" is a vague word as we mentioned in the previous thread. The whole arab world is complicated... as is the definition of the term "Arab"

Hadeer, you are basing your identity on the political and linguistic definitions of an Arab. Not your genealogy. I will give you this much, if you want to call yourself Arab, you can go ahead, don’t mean your wrong, just means you’re a moron.

Btw. You are using the word Arab in your post with different meanings. That is a fallacy. Fallacy of equivocation. It is committed when someone uses the same word in different meanings in an argument, implying that the word means the same each time around -- can be caused by VAGUE and ambiguous language. Meaning your silly post is garbage.

[rudy]

Your so called prof. Is confusing the snots out of you. If he really did say all that stuff you posted than he needs to go do more research on the term “Arab”. And for you to call yourself an “arab” you are robbing yourself of your true identity! Ask your prof if he knows that the Assyrian / Chaldeans are the indigenous people of modern day Iraq. And there are many groups in the middle-east who have fallen into this trap of being told they are arab when they truly are not. For example the Lebanese. Most call themselves arab. A quick study of history tells us they are not they are the Phoenicians. So I’m asking you not to fall into this trap. You are not an Arab!

[Hadeer]

For those who need even more obvious clarification, the above are the facts given to me by my professor. You would think Arabs knew how to read.

Originally Posted by rudy @ Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:14 pm

Your so called prof. Is confusing the snots out of you. If he really did say all that stuff you posted than he needs to go do more research on the term “Arab”. And for you to call yourself an “arab” you are robbing yourself of your true identity! Ask your prof if he knows that the Assyrian / Chaldeans are the indigenous people of modern day Iraq. And there are many groups in the middle-east who have fallen into this trap of being told they are arab when they truly are not. For example the Lebanese. Most call themselves arab. A quick study of history tells us they are not they are the Phoenicians. So I’m asking you not to fall into this trap. You are not an Arab!

I never said I wasn't Chaldean or Assyrian.

I am an Arab (geographic)-Assyrian (ethnic)-Catholic (religious)-Chaldean (ethnic)-Iraqi (geographic)-American (geographic), but only three of those I identify with because of location and the other three moreso religious/ethnically. And it does not matter whether or not we were there first than these so called "Arabs". The fact of the matter is that it is there now, considered as the Middle East. Arabs are those who live in a country designated as Arab in the Middle East. Being Arabic does not have anything to do with religion or race, specifically Islam. Think Native Americans of the United States. It surely wasn't the United States when they were first there, but they've surely used it as a part of their name: The Native-Americans because they are what they are now, presently, today. Chaldean offspring, whose parents mainly come from Iraq, are quite hard-headed and do not want to believe they are Arab because they do not want to be proven wrong. As my prof state, this is a Detroit Phenomenon. Oh well, that's what it means to have Iraqi blood in you.

I am both Arab and Chaldean:
1. Arab--Due to the current location of where my ancestors were from (Mesopotamia, also known as present-day Iraq [a member of the Arab League] or both my parents are from Iraq)
2. Chaldean--The type of people that lived in Mesopotamia who later became Catholic, which is now present day Iraq, once again reiterating: a member of the Arab league.


Use this analogy:
Michigan (different ethnic groups, religions, and races) is to Iraq (different ethnic groups, religions, and races) AS The United States (American) is to the Doual Arabia (Arab). But the stubborn Iraqi nature will tell you that this is wrong. It is not.

If you are a Chaldean with roots in or born in the Middle East, then you are Arab.

Bottom Line: If you consider yourself Arab and/or you or your ancestors are from an area known as a present day Arab League country, then you are Arab.

[Hadeer]

Look, I found this on Wikipedia and it is very much true. Arabcentrocism is for both Chaldeans and Muslims. We all have this problem at the sociological level!!! Rejoice!!!

Arabocentrism or Arab chauvinism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on not simply "Middle Eastern" but more specifically "Arab" concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures (typically countered from other Middle-East cultures and European culture). Like its equivalent, Eurocentrism, it is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with or opposition to current and past real power structures in the world. It can be a less overt form of Arab supremacy, as opposed to white supremacy. As Arabocentrism involved overemphasizing claims of superiority or claiming that everything is of Arab origin, this discourse may be behind advocating - whether actual or perceived - Arab influence over various non-Arab cultures as being such, or denying their true existence at all.

(Reminds me of the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding who sprayed the Windex on everything and claimed everything had a Greek origin.)

Originally Posted by Hadeer @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:42 am

For those who need even more obvious clarification, the above are the facts given to me by my professor. You would think Arabs knew how to read.

Listen Kid. Just because your professor said something does not make your argument true. Let me tell you something about logic. Kid. Telling us that we are Arabs on the basis that someone with a fancy title said so is a FALLACY. It’s an appeal to authority. Clearly what you are doing. It’s called fallacy "of the one."


good day.

[Shlama_98]

Originally Posted by Hadeer @ Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:04 pm

Well, since so many people tried to prove me wrong, it’s my turn to give you the words of a person probably more educated than everyone else here. These are the words of my Arabic language professor, who has his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and African Studies as well as multiple bachelor’s degrees in Arabic, ESL, Pedagogy as well as other areas including teaching. He created the Arabic program at my university about 11 years ago, and has been teaching longer. This is his response to when I asked him if Chaldeans are Arab. I’ll put it in a list:

Gees, no wonder why you're teacher is so biased, he's not speaking out of his education, he's speaking out of his rear if you know what I mean.

-He also told me that Chaldeans withdrawing from the Arab identity is a Detroit Phenomenon, and a similar view is not held in the Middle East as it is strongly evident here. Yep, everyone here has contributed their part of that false phenomenon. Congratulations.

Chaldeans never called themselves Arabs until they started leaving their home villages and gone down to Baghdad and Basra for work, even then only a small number of them did that, so if you ever went to a home village you would never hear anyone calling him/herself an Arab.

-Also, he made an analogy. He asked me if I was American, and I said of course! And then he asked me why, and I said because I was born and raised in the United States. It does not automatically mean I am a certain religion or race.

You're an American because a) You are born in a country called The United States of America, b) You live in this country.

But when it comes to Arab your parents are from Iraq, sure the country is ruled by Arabs and is part of this retarded Arab league, but in reality there's no Arab term with the country of Iraq, unlike Saudi Arabia, Iraq does't have the term Arab in it so it does't make sense to be called an Arab when in reality the term does't even fit in.

-In class, he told us that even though the Middle Eastern (with North Africa) countries are considered by the rest of the world as separate and individual countries, those who actually live there identify as one, the doual arabia (Arabic Countries), in the same sense as states in the United States are comprised of. Although there occasionally occurs problems within Arab Countries, they are still part of one. Going back, he said anyone who lives there is considered Arab. Remember, Arab is not a classification made by the Muslim religion.

We are not living in the past where the entire middle east was one empire, actually funny to say that since there was no such as Arab empire nor an Arab nation, because whenever Arabs ruled it was always an Islamic empire, not Arab one.

However since your prof is going back that far then why not just call ourselves a bunch of Ottoman Turks then? because before Iraq existed that's what the region was part of.

Your prof needs to live with reality, Arab countries does't make all the people that live there Arabs, ask your prof about Kurds, are they Arabs too? if he said yes then tell him to put his degrees and phd's in the zibil.

-Chad (a country diagonally underneath Egypt) is not a member of the Arab league, but they are more “Arab” per say than the official Arab country of Somalia.

People of Chad feel this way because of their Muslim pride, do you realize that I have Afghan friends in school that feel the exact same way, do you know why? because they're very religious people and the language of the Quran is Arabic, so the term Arabic to them is very important.

-My professor told me that if anyone feels a Nationalism for the doual arabia (Arabic Countries) or Arab identity, then they are and can designate themselves as Arab. That means if their heart tells them they are Arab, then they are Arab. Obviously, they need roots from one of the 22 approved nations of the Arab League’s official “Middle East.”

Well anyone who feels any sense of nationalism for anything can be called whatever they want to be called, in other words if I feel like being called a Mongolian then at heart this is how I feel.

The reality is that the Arab league is nothing but a bunch of Arabs trying to brainwash the populations living in their countries and outsiders as well, it's like the Baath party, we lived in a Baathy Iraq and were ruled by the Baath, did that make us a bunch of Baathis?

- Then he proceeded to tell me that he knows many Chaldeans who rather identify themselves as Arab, because Arab denotes a current geographical location regardless of past history and that the term Chaldean has a religious connotation, and that there is no land clearly defined as “Chaldean.” Remember, a nationality is not made of religion. It is made up through the usage of geographical points, and the doual arabia are considered one, so alongside the respective country's identity (i.e. Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Lebanese), they also all share the identity as Arab.

If you wanna speak of geography then you're an Assyrian before anything because your home villages were the heart of ancient Assyria, you have Alqosh, Telkef, Telesquf, Bakhdida, Bartella, and so on, these are all Assyrian areas by geography, BUT if someone is gonna make a claim that Assyria does't exist today then fine, they're Iraqi then, but Arab? that they're not.

My professor has the credentials to say what he said and he has the credibility to back up his words, and he is speaking logically. Anyone who lives/lived/or has roots in a country certified as a Middle East Arab Country by the Arab League, then they are technically Arab.

Your teacher is not speaking by logic nor is he using history to prove his claims, he's using the Arab league which is nothing but propaganda, the problem is that you are being labeled by a bunch of others who want you to be labeled like that, had they not forced or brainwashed such thing there'd be less people calling themselves Arab today.

Bottom Line: If you consider yourself Arab, you are Arab. And no one has the right to tell you otherwise, since they do not define you.

Sure, but this is no different if I decided to call myself a Mongol, Jap, or a Chinc.

We are not living in the past where the entire middle east was one empire, actually funny to say that since there was no such as Arab empire nor an Arab nation, because whenever Arabs ruled it was always an Islamic empire, not Arab one.

Actually there is a precedent, without Islamic involvement and that is union between Egypt and Syria, forming the short lived United Arab Republic during the late 50s.

If you wanna speak of geography then you're an Assyrian before anything because your home villages were the heart of ancient Assyria, you have Alqosh, Telkef, Telesquf, Bakhdida, Bartella, and so on, these are all Assyrian areas by geography, BUT if someone is gonna make a claim that Assyria does't exist today then fine, they're Iraqi then, but Arab? that they're not.

correct.

Your teacher is not speaking by logic nor is he using history to prove his claims,

correct.


------------------


It is from my understanding, that if anything, Arabs are Chaldean. Abraham was chaldean, he came from the chaldean city of Ur. And of course we know he fathered nations -- Most notable the Arabs out of Ishmael. So if we are going to use biblical sources, Arabs are chaldeans.


But if I am wrong anyone, let me know.

[Hadeer]

As mentioned before, we are living in the current and not in the past. And since there is no physical possible way to be living today and the time of ancient Assyria or Chaldea, then you are living in today's current Arab World, whether you like it or not. That's like saying you are a Michigander but not an American (i.e. Iraqi but not Arab).

[proudchaldean]

Originally Posted by Shlama_98 @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 6:25 am

Gees, no wonder why you're teacher is so biased, he's not speaking out of his education, he's speaking out of his rear if you know what I mean.

Chaldeans never called themselves Arabs until they started leaving their home villages and gone down to Baghdad and Basra for work, even then only a small number of them did that, so if you ever went to a home village you would never hear anyone calling him/herself an Arab.

You're an American because a) You are born in a country called The United States of America, b) You live in this country.

But when it comes to Arab your parents are from Iraq, sure the country is ruled by Arabs and is part of this retarded Arab league, but in reality there's no Arab term with the country of Iraq, unlike Saudi Arabia, Iraq does't have the term Arab in it so it does't make sense to be called an Arab when in reality the term does't even fit in.

We are not living in the past where the entire middle east was one empire, actually funny to say that since there was no such as Arab empire nor an Arab nation, because whenever Arabs ruled it was always an Islamic empire, not Arab one.

However since your prof is going back that far then why not just call ourselves a bunch of Ottoman Turks then? because before Iraq existed that's what the region was part of.

Your prof needs to live with reality, Arab countries does't make all the people that live there Arabs, ask your prof about Kurds, are they Arabs too? if he said yes then tell him to put his degrees and phd's in the zibil.

People of Chad feel this way because of their Muslim pride, do you realize that I have Afghan friends in school that feel the exact same way, do you know why? because they're very religious people and the language of the Quran is Arabic, so the term Arabic to them is very important.

Well anyone who feels any sense of nationalism for anything can be called whatever they want to be called, in other words if I feel like being called a Mongolian then at heart this is how I feel.

The reality is that the Arab league is nothing but a bunch of Arabs trying to brainwash the populations living in their countries and outsiders as well, it's like the Baath party, we lived in a Baathy Iraq and were ruled by the Baath, did that make us a bunch of Baathis?

If you wanna speak of geography then you're an Assyrian before anything because your home villages were the heart of ancient Assyria, you have Alqosh, Telkef, Telesquf, Bakhdida, Bartella, and so on, these are all Assyrian areas by geography, BUT if someone is gonna make a claim that Assyria does't exist today then fine, they're Iraqi then, but Arab? that they're not.

Your teacher is not speaking by logic nor is he using history to prove his claims, he's using the Arab league which is nothing but propaganda, the problem is that you are being labeled by a bunch of others who want you to be labeled like that, had they not forced or brainwashed such thing there'd be less people calling themselves Arab today.

Sure, but this is no different if I decided to call myself a Mongol, Jap, or a Chinc.

Hadeer...remember last night when i told you i was busy doing something, but that i wanted to explain to you why your prof. was wrong? Well he did it for me...nice job shlama

[DaiRaxon]

I really have to object to your claims, Hadeer.

What you and your professor seem to have overlooked
is the issue of ethnicity. Prior to islam, Arab referred to
the southern-Semitic peoples from the Arabian peninsula.
Especially the tribes that came from the desert - the people
of the southernmost part of the peninsula had their own identity.

Yet after islam was introduced, the Arabs set out to conquer.
And because islam and the Arabian identity are like siamese twins,
the islamic religion that these Arabs preached was (and still is)
inseparable from the Arabian identity and culture.

Therefore, islamic domination automatically meant Arabian
cultural domination, and the people that converted to islam
were either completely Arabized, or at least seriously culturally
influenced by the Arabian culture. That's not unlike what the
Romans did - creating a strong and unified empire by assimilating peoples.

The result of that is that most people who call themselves Arabs
actually have not so much, very little or even no Arabian blood at all.
Half the Morrocan Arabs for example, has NO Arabian ancestors
whatsoever, and they're just Berbers assimilated into Arabs.

And because of cultural/religious affiliations, some other non-Arabic
peoples like to identify themselves with the Arabs, such as the Somali's.
We've seen the same thing with the Greeks and Romans.

Furthermore, just living in an Arab country doesn't
make you an Arab. One of the others already mentioned the Kurds,
and another good examples are the Berbers, the natives of
most of North Africa.

By your logic, these Berbers are Arabs because they live in an Arab society.
Yet if you'd tell one that he's an Arab, he'll kill you for that.

Not all native peoples in the lands conquered by the Arabs
adopted the Arabian identity, as you can see.
Several peoples kept resisting assimilation, either out of national pride,
(the Kurds, Berbers and Persians), or for refusing to convert to islam (the Copts, Assyrians, Armenians etc.)

Now then, some, especially the non-muslims among them,
integrated in the Arabian society, and thus adopted the Arabian
language and elements from their culture, but they retained their
own culture, identity, and the memory that they were different
from the Arabs, that they had different ancestors,
and that even though they lived in an Arabian society,
they were not - and never were - Arabs themselves.

As for nations and identity: they live as long
as people want them to be alive, and they die
when people don't care about them anymore,
or abandon or nullify them for other reasons,
just like you are doing now.

The Berbers, the Kurds, the Armenians, not to mention the Jews
and many others survived many centuries of foreign domination because they did not give up their own separate identity and effectively becoming Arabs like you practically have become an Arab.

And it is ab-so-lute-ly WRONG WRONG WRONG
to just abandon your own distinct ethnic identity
just because your ancestral homelands have been overrun
by foreign invaders, because that's just the way that peoples
disappear.

Ever heard of the Illyrians, Samnites or Ligurians?
Propably not - unless you have studied the beginnings of
the Roman nation and empire. And that's because these peoples
were at some point overrun by the Romans, and were assimilated
because they abandoned their own identity in favor of becoming
Roman.

Which they became - and now they have disappeared completely,
they were all absorbed by other peoples, and their identities were lost.
Thus, these identities do not live anymore, and they will never relive again.

But some other peoples, like the Basques, never gave in
to those attempts to assimilate them. And that's why there
are still Basques today.


You're right about that the Assyrian and Chaldean-Babylonian
empires are a thing of the past. But that doesn't mean that the
Assyrian and Chaldean ethnic identities have become obselete
or just worthless relics from the past!

And even if the Assyrians and Chaldeans are but a relic from the past,
so are many other peoples.
In Mexico and Guatemala there still are Mayans and Toltecs,
peoples who once ruled mighty empires and built whole civilisations.
These civilisations may be gone now, but that doesn't mean that
their identities have become irrelevant.

By your logic, if you would look at the position of the Jews
two centuries ago, then I guess you would have told them to
stop concidering themselves ethnic Jews, and start integrating in
the countries in which they lived, because Israel was nothing more
than a thing of the distant past, a hopeless dream that they
should not be foolish enough to cling to.

Yet the Jews didn't do this - in spite of all the people telling
them to do so. And just see the result! - through Jewish
persistance and a sheer will to survive, Israel now exists again!

Israel is no longer a memory from the distant past, but a real
nation that's as real and modern as any other nation.

Assyria and Chaldea have never died - they live and survive
because people continue to uphold not only the Assyrian and
Chaldean identities, but also because there still are people who
remember that they are from Assyrian and Chaldean descent.

Assyria and Chaldea live only because people want them to live.

[Emma_Girl]

DaiRaxon, who are you?

WOW great post DaiRaxon, I agree with all your points.

[Shlama_98]

Originally Posted by Hadeer @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 8:58 am

As mentioned before, we are living in the current and not in the past. And since there is no physical possible way to be living today and the time of ancient Assyria or Chaldea, then you are living in today's current Arab World, whether you like it or not. That's like saying you are a Michigander but not an American (i.e. Iraqi but not Arab).

You speak so much about logic yet you don't show any...

Iraq is an independent country, it's not a state or a province part of a bigger country or empire so it's not like Michigan, logic goes like this:

Asia = North America
Iraq = USA
Ninwa, Arbil, Baghdad, Basra, so on = Michigan, Illinois, New York, Cali, so on
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, so on = Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, so on.
Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, so on = Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, so on
Africa = South America

The country is Iraq, not Arabia.

Originally Posted by Shlama_98 @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:03 am

You speak so much about logic yet you don't show any...

Iraq is an independent country, it's not a state or a province part of a bigger country or empire so it's not like Michigan, logic goes like this:

Asia = North America
Iraq = USA
Ninwa, Arbil, Baghdad, Basra, so on = Michigan, Illinois, New York, Cali, so on
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, so on = Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, so on.
Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, so on = Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, so on
Africa = South America

The country is Iraq, not Arabia.

The problem with Hadeers reasoning is he is making a grossly false comparison (logical error). Once he can realize that, he will be able to know what the hell everyone is talking about.

[DaiRaxon]

Originally Posted by rkb @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 4:00 pm

WOW great post DaiRaxon, I agree with all your points.

Thanks!!
I'm always ready to fight (verbally) for the good cause!

[rudy]

I’m not going to say much because I think rkb, shlama and, dairaxon are doing a great job on this topic. But I just would like to add one thing. Hadeer if I can just give you a small example of how your prof is confusing you.

“if their heart tells them they are Arab, then they are Arab”.

And then you said

“If you are a Chaldean with roots in or born in the Middle East, then you are Arab”

. Hadeer you have a huge problem with admitting you are wrong and that is the main reason why so many keep going at you. There is nothing wrong with admitting you are wrong. When you start doing this your mind will begin to be illuminated to the truth

[missbaghdad]

Originally Posted by Hadeer @ Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:04 pm

-He also told me that Chaldeans withdrawing from the Arab identity is a Detroit Phenomenon, and a similar view is not held in the Middle East as it is strongly evident here. Yep, everyone here has contributed their part of that false phenomenon. Congratulations.

It's not a phenomenon... it's PRIDE and lack of fear. The majority of Iraqi Chaldeans in Detroit came here before the 2003 war so they lived under a dictatorship that preached and forced Arabization on them. They NOT speak out about their opinions and belifefs while living under Saddam.

So being in America, land of the free, Chaldeans are able to voice their opinions (as loud as they want) and take pride in their heritage and denounce the claims that Chaldeans are Arabs.


Another thought: Ask any Arabs if Chaldeans are ethnically Arab... I bet that will reinforce what all of us are trying to help you understand, Hadeer.

[missbaghdad]

DaiRaxon you are brilliant

[Hadeer]

DaiRaxon, thanks for the history lesson, but for the nineteenth time, I AM CHALDEAN and proud of it. Your argument would hold up if I ignored my heritage, which I am certainly not.

Originally Posted by Shlama_98 @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:03 am

Iraq is an independent country, it's not a state or a province part of a bigger country or empire so it's not like Michigan, logic goes like this:

Asia = North America
Iraq = USA
Ninwa, Arbil, Baghdad, Basra, so on = Michigan, Illinois, New York, Cali, so on
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, so on = Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, so on.
Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, so on = Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, so on
Africa = South America

The country is Iraq, not Arabia.

The Middle East is different. I don't see why no one here can understand that. Although they are recognized by the rest of the ignorant world as countries, they are merely one big country (not technically to the world at large, but that is what they truly are). THE DOUAL ARABIA. That means the Arab Countries. Iraq is an Arab Country. Anyone from an Arab Country is an Arab. Plain and simple. The Kurds who live in Northern Iraq are Arab. The Berbers who live in Morrocco are Arab. The Coptics that live in Egypt are Arab.

Originally Posted by missbaghdad @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:52 am

Another thought: Ask any Arabs if Chaldeans are ethnically Arab... I bet that will reinforce what all of us are trying to help you understand, Hadeer.

I am not ethnically Arab. I am Arab by geographic association. As you said, it is PRIDE that is holding back fellow Chaldeans from admitting that.

[Shlama_98]

Originally Posted by Hadeer @ Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:25 pm

The Middle East is different. I don't see why no one here can understand that. Although they are recognized by the rest of the ignorant world as countries, they are merely one big country (not technically to the world at large, but that is what they truly are). THE DOUAL ARABIA. That means the Arab Countries. Iraq is an Arab Country. Anyone from an Arab Country is an Arab. Plain and simple. The Kurds who live in Northern Iraq are Arab. The Berbers who live in Morrocco are Arab. The Coptics that live in Egypt are Arab.

It's different? says who? the middle east is the same as the rest of the world, the ignorant is those who ignore their minorities and lebel them something they're not.

Let's be real here, if the middle east was one real nation then all of those Arabs would drop their countries and be one real country, but I guess they're not a real Arab country now are they? anyways, until then, there's no country called "Arabia" period, it does't exist, sadly guys like your teacher like to brainwash people when it comes to this.

The Arab countries are no different then Latin America for example, or Turkistan another example, yes, the Arab region does exist where the majority is supposed to be an Arab (Those who consider themselves Arab that is), but there are minorities that live within these communities and lebeling them what the majority are is stupid and ignorant (Like your teacher I guess).