Dare to Ask: A Middle Easterner is not always an Arab

By Phillip J. Milano

Question

Do Middle Easterners find it offensive to be called Arabs or A-rabs?

Karen, white, Staten, N.C.

Replies

A-rab is considered offensive because it is mispronounced. And remember, not all people in the Middle East are Arab. There are Persians (mainly in Iran), Palestinians, Kurd ... it goes on and on. Calling someone from Iran A-rab would really p*** them off. Especially because A-rab is how some people in America pronounce it in a derogatory way.

Melanie, 28, white, Chicago

Do not call someone an Arab if he is not an Arab! The best way is to find out what the person calls himself, or find out his country of origin.

Teresa, 21, white, Illinois

Is it Apple or A-pple? Is it I-talian or Italian? The “a” is short in “apple.” Pretty simple.

Frank, 38, Hispanic, Los Angeles

If you’re an Alabamian from Arab, Ala., it’s pronounced with a long A.

Danny, 45, white, South Korea

Call the ones from Saudi Arabia “Saudis.” The ones from Iran “Iranians.” The ones from Jordan “Jordanians.” Get it?

Ann, 38, white, Missouri

Expert says

Yes, Arab is pronounced “Ay-rab” when it comes to the town of about 8,000 in Alabama. Outside there, though, that pronunciation distorts how the word is pronounced in Arabic (“Ah-rab”), said Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver and author of “Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy” (Oxford University Press).

“If you’re being generous, you could forgive it and write it off as someone’s accent,” he said. “But you also see ‘Ay-rab’ used by others and in Hollywood films that promote a prejudicial and racial narrative of Muslims. The term becomes associated with a particular offensive representation of Arabs.”

Use Middle Easterner as an inclusive catch-all that doesn’t invoke religion when describing people from that region, he said. Don’t default to “Muslim” (or worse yet, “Moslem”), either, because Jews, Christians and others make their home in the Mideast, too.

Call someone from Iran an “Arab” and there’s a good chance they’ll be miffed, as most are not Arab, Hashemi said.

“Not only that, but there are ethnic tensions between Iranians and Arabs that go back thousands of years and are now exploited to perpetuate political differences.”

Messy stuff, politics.

“Overall, some people are trying to be offensive when they mispronounce, or are showing intellectual laziness from something fossilized in their mind,” Hashemi said. “The goal in a changing world should be to find the pronunciation people prefer … to rise to the occasion. When you get it correct phonetically, it can create a very positive impression that you’ve gone the extra step.”

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Phillip Milano, author of "I Can't Believe You Asked That! (Perigee)," moderates cross-cultural dialogue at Y? The National Forum on People's Differences. Keep the cross-cultural dialogue going at his Jacksonville.com blog or at www.yforum.com. Send general column comments to yforum (at) yforum.com. You can also hear his podcasts.