ABSTRACT
ARAB COMMUNITIES “Arab” is a term that originally identified inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula but now refers to
more than two hundred million people who speak Arabic and inhabit the Middle East and northern Africa. Despite the popular misconception that all Arabs are Muslims, the majority of Arab immigrants to the United States are Christians from Syria and Lebanon. Moreover, even in their homelands, a number of Christians and Muslims do not self-identify as Arabs. For example, several cultural-linguistic groups from Arabic-speaking countries-such as Kurds (Kurdish-speaking people of various religions from eastern Turkey, northeast Iran, and northwest Iraq in a region called Kurdistan), Chaldeans (an Aramaic-speaking Catholic sect, sometimes referred to as Assyrians, from Iraq, east Syria, and southeast Turkey), and Berbers (Berber-or Tamazight-speaking Muslims who claim indigenous status in North Africa predating the arrival of the Arabs)—generally do not claim Arab identity.
