What do you think about Arab people ??

[Arabic Boy]

Hi to all ...

I don't know why everybody thinks that arabic people are still useing Camels ?


or think that arabic people are dump !

SO ... as an arabic boy I want to make everybody understand us well

I Will Answer Any Thing That Anybody Ask About

Just to make you more intrested i'm tell you something scary ...

Arabic people INVENTED DRIFTING FIRST

not in the same way but, yes we did

[Dutch Baka]

When you are talking about Arab people, are you talking about people from Saudie Arabia, the middle east?

I have had some friends from Turkey and Marocco and we got along very well, and learned from each other culture a lot.

Nothing wrong with Arabs, in my opinion. Wish people would have some more respect for each others cultures so now and then.

[Mars Man]

Hello there Arabic Boy; Welcome to the forum.

I have had a good number of friends from several countries around the Middle East, and enjoyed spending time with most of them. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to live in Saudia Arabia (or other countries in that area) so I have never met any of the more middle class folks.

I do think, however, that people are pretty much human at heart, most anywhere you go, so there'll be the good and the bad. Some countries in the world are given less attention by the world at large, some given too much attention in the wrong way. At times it's really hard to say much about that too.

Now, in what way did 'drifting' start in Saudia Arabia? (I take it you mean 'drifting' as in a car technique, right?) MM

[Faustianideals]

I have Arabic nephews. I don't see the problem with them. I have run into a few Arabic men that I would like to see neutered, but I don't think that's because of the culture they come from. Seriously though, I wouldn't worry about what people think of your culture. Heh, I'm sure the world is just going through a culture shock right now, lol.

[yukio_michael]

I don't have any problem with any particularly race on this planet, whatsoever... I don't even have a pre-conceived notion about places I've never been.... I'm Italian, Irish, and Ukranian, with Jewish relatives, Scandinavian girlfriends, friends, South African friends, Japanese, Korean, Haitian, Chinese, British, Dutch & Czech friends... (from those respective countries, not just around the block...)
It's nice to meet you... we're all here together on this ONE planet... Let's all agree that we're all of us the same people, a member of the human race...
Ideologies, mores, religions, and politics aside, we're all the same....

Originally Posted by Thor

[...]

Joe the Lion is a great track, I included it on a cd I made for work recently! Same for the rest of Bowie tracks in your playlist.... You've heard Moss Garden, I assume?

[Sarapva]

Welcome, Arabic Boy! I don't think I know any Arabic people personally, but I know I've met some at some time, in the U.S. and England. I agree with what is said above, that we're all basically the same inside, regardless of ethnic group. What do you mean about "drifting"? I'm curious about that now!

[KirinMan]

Welcome to the board

To be perfectly honest with you I grew up during the Iran Embassy crisis and thought at that time that the Iranian's were Arabs. Rather ignorant of me looking back at it now. I had many preconceived notions or ideas about a lot of people from around the world as well.

Much of that I "blame" on the education that I received in my younger years and on my Mom who had many discriminatory opinions, ideas and attitudes about many different cultures, particularly those from the middle east.

Thank God that I learned differently as I got older.

I now am lucky to call many people from all over the world as my friends, some from the middle east as well.

I look forward to your partcipating here and helping others learn about your culture and the unique differences it has with the rest of us here.

One again welcome!

[Kinsao]

My cousin's family are Arabic-speakers, they are from the Lebanon.
They taught me a few words and phrases in Arabic, but that's all... and I can't write it, but the script looks beautiful... *_*
I don't have any particular 'idea' about Arabic people... I don't think...
My aunt spent some time in Saudi Arabia, years ago, for her work, and she liked it very much from what I can recall.

[nanook]

I have visited the area several times. Have seen good and bad as everywhere else. Always wanted to live in Lebanon for a while. Which looks very difficult now.

[bijin_vi]

I have some friends who are working in the middle east and have very few half arabic friends. They're good people. I am learning some Arabic words actually and its fun. I don't have problem with Arabs or with any other race for that matter.

[scorpion da black]

ohaio minna
i am Arabian from Lebanon..
in many movies or shows thy show an assumed Arab city looking like a city from three or four hundred years ago
and people on camels...etc.
well we still love traditional tents and camels , but some one tell the movie industry that Arabs have cities as big as big as New York and sky scrapers higher than the empire state building

any ways...thanks for your warm welcome for us Arabs ...i am flattered.
Lebanon was once the bright star of the middle east ...well we can hardly say that any more but i would still like to welcome all of you to visit and see the middle east from its main gate

oh and yes we invented drifting before any Japanese ever knew what it was..

[leonmarino]

I have nothing against any people as a whole.

If you're interested in Hollywood's view of Arabs and want to understand why people might have a negative image of Arabs whilst never meeting/seeing one, here is a pretty interesting documentary, or at least a trailer of it:
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

[scorpion da black]

Originally Posted by leonmarino

I have nothing against any people as a whole.
If you're interested in Hollywood's view of Arabs and want to understand why people might have a negative image of Arabs whilst never meeting/seeing one, here is a pretty interesting documentary, or at least a trailer of it:
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

that is a nice name for a documentary

the add will be
real bad Arabs coming soon on nat geo

[Tsuyoiko]

I think Arab people are like anyone else - some of them are OK, some of them are not.

Go back a thousand years and Arabs had arguably the most 'advanced' civilisation on Earth, certainly with regard to science and technology. I'm particularly interested in their contributions to Mathematics since it's my subject. Their greatest mathematician (imo), Al-Khwarizmi, gave his name to the word 'algorithm'. He wrote the first book on algebra, Kitab al-Jabr, which is where the term algebra comes from. Arabs introduced zero and the decimal point. Cryptology using frequency analysis, proof by induction, foundations of calculus, spherical trigonometry and non-Euclidean geometry were all attempted first by Arabs.

[Skullcrushergurl]

Where I live,Arabs own everything. It's horrid actually. They treat customers pretty badly, talk about the customers behind their backs or even to their faces in their language. It's disgusting. I hate to be racist but I keep my distance.
Hm. Everyone. Watch THE KINGDOM. A movie released in the U.S about the Middle Eastern people who hate us westerners. If you live in the U.S You'll have a certain hatred for them. Once you watch the movie, you'll understand.

[scorpion da black]

Originally Posted by Skullcrushergurl

Where I live,Arabs own everything. It's horrid actually. They treat customers pretty badly, talk about the customers behind their backs or even to their faces in their language. It's disgusting. I hate to be racist but I keep my distance.
Hm. Everyone. Watch THE KINGDOM. A movie released in the U.S about the Middle Eastern people who hate us westerners. If you live in the U.S You'll have a certain hatred for them. Once you watch the movie, you'll understand.

it is unfortunate that you have met only bad Arab people...
i am not saying Arabs are angels...... there are many ***holes here.

but there is more to us than just that
we are not all like that.
if you meet Arabs who actually live in the middle east you would see a different face for Arabs...like here in Lebanon all you will see is smiling faces...who will welcome you with great hospitablity...and if you left a nice impression they will even consider you from the family.

and that Kingdom movie is some how bias to ideas not so accurate about us.
we welcome any one who comes to our countries as a friend, a fellow citizen...but when some nation comes as an invading army well they will meet people with weapons pretty much...that is not a sign of hate it is a sign of patriotism ...we love our nation..and we will not have them invaded.
i bet everyone thinks like that...you wont allow a foreign army to step foot on your soil as invaders would you?
i have been through war, and i was willing to fight if i had to...

[Skullcrushergurl]

Yeah suicide bombers....blowing up our precious towers....all those people that died for no reason. Innocent people doing their jobs. Making money for their families....The average American has the right to hold a grudge.

[scorpion da black]

Originally Posted by Skullcrushergurl

Yeah suicide bombers....blowing up our precious towers....all those people that died for no reason. Innocent people doing their jobs. Making money for their families....The average American has the right to hold a grudge.

well as i said we are not all angels...there are many ***holes..

but as so every where on earth..
the terrorists killed three thousand Americans and that was unfortunate.

the American military are responsible for 750 000 deaths in Iraq ever since their invasion in 2003...
if i would say as you say: " i have the right to have a grudge "
then perhaps i will turn into a terrorist my self...and have hate towards all Americans ....but i am smarter than that i know there is more to Americans than """Bush"""....i know that there are many great, friendly, smart, beautiful, Americans out there an i was lucky to meet some of them...


and just as i said, there is more to us than just terrorists...we are not all bin laden...

[Skullcrushergurl]

Yes I know but it's hard to trust and disbelieve a lot of the stereotypes. If you lived in America, you'd see.

[bakaKanadajin]

Everyone is an ambassador of their own culture. I personally won't hold it against anyone to say "out of the X kind of people I've met, X% have been this or that, so I don't like them,/I do like them", whatever. That's totally their opinion, and they're entitled to it.

Unfortunately we fail to realize most stereotypes are true. As a Canadian, I can tell you I do in fact love hockey, say 'doot' (doubt) and 'aboot' (about), I'm apt to drink too much, I like cold weather, there is a mandatory 5-10 min discussion at work in the mornings about weather and road conditions, and I'm pretty polite. And I live in Toronto, the stereotypes become much more visible the further North into the sticks you go.

So that being said, regarding Arab peoples, I have some pre-existing notions based on my experiences and chance meetings, as well as through work since I worked in an area with many Arabs and South-Asians and got to know a lot of them. IN GENERAL, to answers the OP, based on these experiences I think most Arabs are just peace loving people who have gotten a bad reputation thanks to some extremists. The politics regarding treatment of women and other socially vulnerable groups in Arab countries is also severely lacking. (Public stonings, 'honour' killings of cheating wives, the extremist Islamic practice of marrying extremely young girls to older men, etc.)

So if there was anything I didn't like about the concept of 'Arab' in my own country, it would be my disdain for fundementalist followers of Islam and highly religious Arabs who come from these backward political traditions, as they are trying to set up Sharia court systems (separate Arab law outside of normal judicial law) and build a lot of temples everywhere. But I feel equally upset at other religious groups when their religious concerns begin to encroach upon normal life for everyone else as well.

[leonmarino]

Originally Posted by Skullcrushergurl

Yeah suicide bombers....blowing up our precious towers....all those people that died for no reason. Innocent people doing their jobs. Making money for their families....The average American has the right to hold a grudge.

Against who? The "Arabs"? The average "Arab" had nothing to do with 9/11. If you're equating all Arabs and hating them you're nothing better than the average extremist. Because that's what they do; ignoring the details and hating a whole people just because.. Well, basically because you lack the ability to think critically.

[Skullcrushergurl]

Okay but that's the way people are. The countries that have warred years ago still are a little, let's say uncertain about the people from the country they fought.
The thing is that most middle eastern people stick together because freedom of speech isn't as common there, right?
So if something happens over there, they hate Americans for it right? That sounds weird, I know.
But in the sense of specific arabic people,their attitudes are pretty bad towards Americans from what I've expearienced, especially if you aren't white...I don't know.....it's weird.

[Sarapva]

There are lots of prejudices everywhere. I personally don't hold a grudge against the Arab people as a whole because of 9/11, and don't know any other American who does. It's the extremists in any culture or religion that I'd be afraid of. And like leonmarino said, if we were to cultivate negative feelings towards any group of people, that would be doing as the extremists do. We need to recognize that the suicide bombers in the world are a very small minority (thank goodness - otherwise everyone would be getting blown up all over the place), and not group them together with the religion they happen to belong to, since there are probably millions of other people in the same religion who are just like anyone else in any other religion or culture.

[Pachipro]

Welcome to Jref Arabic Boy.

It's Hollywood and the news media that portray Arabs and the Muslim world in a light that they want us to believe and if that means camels and a backwards world then most people will believe it as most westerners have no idea of the world around them other than what Hollywood and their media tells them.

Look, we have been taught since 911 to hate/despise all Muslim people (including Arabs) and that they are bent on destroying the United States/Western World because they are "jealous of our freedoms". We are told by our news media that they are greedy and that it is they who are pushing up the price of oil when, in fact, it is the Oil companies of the US and the UK/EU that are responsible as they built the oil fields and refineries and run them.

Sure, Arabs are human, just as we all are and a man should be judged on his merits and nothing else regardless of race. You will find both good and bad in every corner of the world reagrdless of race, nationality or creed. It's just the way it is. However, one must be intelligent enough to look through the news media and Hollywood hype and propaganda and to judge a person on his merits and nothing else.

Also, just as there are extremists in the western media who extol hate against Muslims and Arabs, there are also extremists in the Islamic and Arabic world who extol hate against anyone western in order to push their philosophy/religion. The sad part is that there are the majority of the population on both sides who will only listen to what is told to them by their clerics or media and nothing more. They will, sadly, never do their own research to find the truth and thus we are in the conundrum we are presently in in this world or ours where it is now the Western World against the Muslims where, in the past, it was the Wetsern World against the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, etc.

To understand this crazy world we live in one must understand that there must be a bogeyman for the other side to hate/despise/fear and for now, in the beginning of the 21st century, it is the Muslims/Arabs/Middle Easterners for the Western Wold, and it is the Western World for the Muslims/Arabs/Middle Easterners. One must be constantly be on guard against the extremists in all cultures and to not allow them to dictate what you should think.

Unfortunately, today it's the way it is (the extremist view) and it will NOT change until the majority on both sides understand that they are being manipulated into hating. However, even though I am pessimestic, with people like you and others of different nationalities on this forum, maybe something can be started and continued to make this a better world.

I hope you, Arabic Boy, will continue to be a regular member here and and will not be afraid to post your opinions.

[Skullcrushergurl]

Geez, so am I an extremist? I hope not. Sorry to offend everyone but when you have only one way of seeing things, it sort of brainwashes you. I never want to be racist or unforgiving but 9/11 was gross.