Who are the …?

Some simple definitions of North African and Southwest Asian cultural groups.

Arabs: Arabic Speakers, a Semitic language. Semitic origins are desert origins. Otherwise, they are pan-ethnic people, many cultures that share a language.

Most North Africans and Southwest Asians are Arabs.Palestinians are Arabs, Jews are not, but both speak a Semitic language: Jews-Hebrew, Arabs-Arabic. There is an Arab majority in Lebanon. Turks and Iranians are not Arabs.

Iranians Formerly Persians Persia was a huge land empire that controlled

most of Southwest and Central Asia from

Bedouins: Nomadic desert people of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Omanis pictured.

Qadaffi was a Bedouin.

Berbers: -people of the Maghreb, assimilated into Arab world, but really pre-Arab.

Berber Moors—what the Islamic Berber conquerers of Spain were known as.

Tuareg: Nomadic desert people of Northwest Africa, especially Mali, Algeria, Niger, and western Libya. Nominally Islamic, many are Arabic speakers, but the first language was and is related to the pre-Arabic Berber language.

Jews

Adherents to the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, Judaism

Sephardic: African and Asian

Ashkenazim: European

Mizrahim: Many geographic/ethnic sub-groups across Africa, Asia, and the world.

ChristiansAdherents to the world’s second oldest

monotheistic religion

Many, many divisions: Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Coptic, Protestant, Gnostic, on and on

MuslimsAdherents to the world’s third oldest

monotheistic religionTwo major divisions:Sunni, the majority in most placesShi’ia, the majority in Iran and southern

Iraq

Islam: The world’s Muslims

Wahhabis: 200 year old orthodox Sunni Islamic sect that adheres to a literal translation of the Koran, established by Abd al-Wahhab and seeks to purify Islam.

Non-Wahabis are considered to be heathens and infidels. Most Saudi royals are Wahhabis. Osama Bin Laden was Wahhabi, as were the 9/11 terrorists. The Afghani & Pakistani Taliban are Wahhabis. Extreme Salafists.

Salafists: From the Arab word salaf “follow” or “believe.” They live as Muhammad did after his conversion. Osama Bin Laden was a Salafist.

Library of Congress Report

AlawitesMinority religious group (12%) in control of Syrian government. Based in Shi’ ia Islam, they split 1,000 years ago. Alawite beliefs include Christian-like elements.

Taking refuge in the mountains above the port of Latakia, on the coastal strip between modern Lebanon and Turkey, they evolved a highly secretive syncretistic theology containing an amalgam of Neo-Platonic, Gnostic, Christian, Muslim, and Zoroastrian elements. Their leading theologian, Abdullah al-Khasibi, who died in 957, proclaimed the divinity of Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, whom other Shi’ites revere but do not worship. Like many Shi’ites influenced by ancient Gnostic teachings that predate Islam, they believe that the way to salvation and knowledge lies through a succession of divine emanations. Acknowledging a line of prophets or avatars beginning with Adam and culminating in Christ and Muhammad, they include several figures from classical antiquity in their list, such as Socrates, Plato, Galen, and some of the pre-Islamic Persian masters. Malise Ruthven , NY Times

Kurds A national, stateless group

living in northwestern Iraq, northeastern Iran, and southeastern Turkey, with smaller numbers in Armenia & Syria.

Not Arabs or Persians: they are Kurds. Their territory is often called Kurdistan, language is Kurdish, religion is Islam with a Christian minority.

Sufis

Found all over the world, adherents to ancient mystical traditions of pre-Islamic people, now part of Islam, yet apart. The “whirling Dervishes” are Sufis.Ascetics, the non-violent Sufis are revered by many people.

Druze One of the many ethno-religious

groups of Lebanon and Syria. They are a monotheistic blend of Shi’ia Islam and other beliefs, yet moderate politically and although small in number, they wield disproportionate power in Lebanese politics. They are dedicated to their culture, and do not convert in or out and do not marry outside the faith.

Hamas & Fatah Palestinian political parties in Israel Hamas: Sunni Palestinians in Israel’s Gaza Strip,

essentially an internment camp for 1.5 million.

Much terror against Israel Fatah: more moderate Palestinians in Israel’s West Bank

Hezbollah, Party of God

Iranian Shi’ia terrorist group, operates in Lebanon and Syria. Formed after 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon as resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah

Rafic Hariri, former & probable Lebanese Prime Minister, philanthropist, credited with rebuilding Beirut after 15 year civil war.

Assassinated 2005, most likely by Hezbollah.

Assassination