
That’s because the census, which helps the federal government determine everything from the number of congressional seats to how the federal budget is distributed to local communities, classifies many people in these communities as White.

San Diego, which has long been one of the largest refugee resettlement communities in California, has large populations of people from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.īut it’s nearly impossible to gauge just how large those populations actually are – and not knowing those numbers has meant fewer resources going to those communities and the organizations that support them. Ramah Awad says community organizations like hers that serve Arab Americans struggle with funding and other issues because her community is often grouped with White people in data.

#Middle eastern people tv#
Lucie Salhany - First woman to head a TV Network (FOX)Ĭhrista McAuliffe - Teacher & space shuttle astronaut Helen Thomas - Former Dean of White House Press CorpsĬurrent Congressmen - Darrell Issa and Nick Rahall John Sununu - Former White House Chief of Staff George Mitchell - Former Senate Majority Leader Shannon Elizabeth - Actress in "American Pie"ĭr. To view a map of the distribution of Arab Americans across the United States click here.Ĭasey Kasem and the Arab American Institute Foundation publish an illustrated brochure on famous Arab Americans click here to see it. The largest communities of Arab Americans live in the Detroit-Dearborn area. A second wave of immigration started after World War II, and still continues. The first immigrants arrived in the late 19th century. There are also substantial communities from Egypt, Yemen and Iraq. There are Americans with roots in each Arab country, but most originate from Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are usually described as South Asia.Īrab Americans are Americans of Arab descent. Turkey is sometimes considered part of the Middle East, sometimes part of Europe.
#Middle eastern people plus#
It usually includes the Arab countries from Egypt east to the Persian Gulf, plus Israel and Iran. The Middle East is a loose term, not always used to describe the same territory. (See the separate ADC information sheet on Islam) Most Arabs are Muslims, but most Muslims are not Arabs.Ī Muslim is a follower of Islam. Of these countries only Egypt is an Arab country. The ten countries with the largest Muslim population are: Indonesia (170.3 million), Pakistan (136 million), Bangladesh (106 million), India (103 million), Turkey (62.4 million), Iran (60.7 million), Egypt (53.7 million), Nigeria (47.7 million) and China (37.1 million).

The Organization of Islamic Countries has 55 member states. There are an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. These include Kurds, Armenians, Berbers and others.

Arab countries have a rich diversity of ethnic, linguistic, and religious communities. Iran and Turkey are not Arab countries and their primary languages are Farsi and Turkish respectively. The Arab World consists of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Most Arabs are Muslims but there are also millions of Christian Arabs and thousands of Jewish Arabs, just as there are Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Americans. Some have blue eyes and red hair others are dark skinned many are somewhere in between. Arabs are united by culture and by history. It refers to those who speak Arabic as their first language. "Arab" is a cultural and linguistic term.
