Posts Tagged ‘Arab Americans’

Buy an essay on Arab-Americans and their American identities in the context of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan

// July 3rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays

However, the cultural changes that affect the cultural identity of representatives of Arab-American community are not so strong as the recent events that have occurred in the US. To put it more precisely, within the last seven years, the position of Arab-Ameircans in the US, the attitude of American people to this community and the self-perception of Arab-Americans have changed under the impact of September 11 and the following foreign policy of the US, which was extremely aggressive in relation to Arab countries and countries of the Middle East, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.
It should be said that this events have enforced consistently the process which Yvonne Y. Haddad et al (1998) defined as the process of Americanization of Arab-American community. In fact, the changes in the cultural life of Arab-American community show the extent to which American environment influences Arab-American community. At the same time, it is necessary to underline the fact that Arab-Americans are inevitably affected by their social environment, especially younger generations because they have to live in a multicultural environment. As a result, in the process of education and communication Arab-Americans come into contact with different cultures and naturally influenced by them. This is why younger generations of Arab Americans, i.e. second and further generations of Arab-Americans are consistently more affected by American influences than the first generation of Arab-Americans or immigrants that have just arrived to the US (Orfalea 2006).
In such a situation, September 11 and the following War on Terror, which resulted in military operations of the US against Iraq and Afghanistan, produced a profound impact on the formation of Arab-American identity. (more…)

Custom essay on Arab-Americans and their Middle Eastern ancestry and culture

// July 3rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays

Nabeel Abraham (1989) indicates to the fact that even within Muslim part of Arab-American community there is no homogeneity. To put it more precisely, there are two major movements in Islam that are defined as shi’i and suni. Their religious norms differ consistently and, moreover, the relations between representatives of these movements were historically characterized as tense, and even in the present epoch this religious dispute between shi’i and suni is a subject of political and even military tension within Muslim countries such as Iraq, for instance, or between different ethnic groups, such as Iraqi and Iranians. Thus, these different and often unfriendly groups are united into Arab-American community in the US and this is why they should change their attitude to each other and, at the same time, maintain their old traditions and culture, while in the Middle East that would live in different communities. In such a way, it is possible to estimate that Arab-American community evolves and the maintenance of culture and traditions of people constituting this community faces the necessity of co-existence and even cooperation with representatives of this community which have different religious believe. In other words, Arab-Americans should modify their traditions in order to adapt them to the American socio-cultural environment.
Furthermore, in spite of the respect to old traditions and cultures, Arab-Americans often have to re-evaluate their cultural norms that is particularly evident in relation to women in Arab-American community. Many specialists (Read and Bartkowski 2000, Read 2002, 2003) argue that the position of women in Arab-American community also tends to changes. In this respect, it should be said that traditionally, Arab and Middle Eastern women were viewed as inferior in traditional Arab culture. Naturally, in the US the maintenance of this tradition will inevitably encounter the problem of equality of rights and opportunities for all citizens. (more…)

Buy an essay on Arab-Americans and their Middle Eastern ancestry and culture

// July 3rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays

In fact, it has been already said that Arab-American community was different. This difference was determined the substantial difference of the culture of Arab-Americans from traditional culture of the US. This is why it would be logical to analyze the links of Arab-Americans to their cultural heritage, to their Middle Eastern ancestry and culture.
In this respect, it is primarily necessary to underline the fact that Arab-American community was and still remains to be culturally diverse. This is why it is necessary to distinguish traditional Arab culture and other cultures which are associated with Arab-American community in the US. Basically, the majority of Arab-Americans represent immigrants and their descendants from countries of the Arab World. It should be said that this community has similar culture, religious views and beliefs, moral norms, etc. This is why it is actually possible to speak about the existence of Arab culture in its pure form in the US, but, on the other hand, this culture and traditions are substantially influenced by the surrounding reality, by social and cultural environment of Arab-American community (Kayyali 2006).
As the matter of fact, even Arab-Americans of the Arab origin cannot feel that they are a part of a homogeneous community because representatives of other ethnic and socio-cultural groups are also included in Arab-American community. Nevertheless, being quite numerous, Arabs attempt to preserve and maintain their culture and traditions. This is why many of them still pay a lot of attention to religion, which is predominantly Islam and they observe their old traditions that may be viewed as a link of Arab-Americans with the land of their ancestors (Cainkar 2006). In fact, religion plays probably the most important role in the cultural life of Arab-Americans which is a strong unifying factor, which, by the way, can unite not only people who are of Arab origin but also people representing different ethnic groups but who are Muslims. (more…)

College essays on Arab-Americans before and after 9/11

// July 3rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays

September 11 had changed the life of Arab-Americans community dramatically. Firstly, it should be said that terror attacks on September 11 changed the attitude of ordinary Americans to Arab-American community, which at the moment became a source of some hidden threat. In this regard, the uniqueness and difference of Arab-American community played a negative role in the change in the attitude of American people to this community. Its traditions and basic values were traditionally associated with Muslim culture and traditions, though, in actuality, not all members of these community were Muslims as well as some of them were not even Arabs. Nevertheless, American society started to view Arab-Americans as a potential threat and as representatives of a hostile culture and civilization.
Naturally, such an attitude to Arab-Americans could not fail to affect the self-perception of the community and their difference from other Americans. At the same time, terror attacks on September 11 also produced a profound impact on Arab-American community regardless any changes in the attitude to this community from the part of the rest of American society. Jack G. Shaheen underlines that in the early 2000s the concept of Arab has acquired some negative connotation. To put it more precisely, Arab-American community, being a part of American society and living in the US could not actually understand the actions of terrorists who were ethnically and culturally close to a large part of the community. It is worthy of mention that specialists (Shaheen 2000) underline that the reaction of many Arab-Americans, especially those representing second and third generations of Arab-Americans was quite negative and they also rejected the methods of struggle of terrorists that had similar ethnic and cultural background and were also associated with the Arab world. (more…)

College essays on Arab-Americans before and after 9/11

// July 3rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays

Taking into consideration the difference of views of representatives of Arab-American communities on the concept of Arab depending on their age and ethnic origin, it is quite logical to presuppose that the concept of Arab is not static. At the same time, the perception of Arab-Americans of themselves and their cultural identity also evolved in the course of time. In this respect, it should be pointed out that, in the course of the history of Arab-community, it is hardly possible to find an event that produced a more profound impact on the identity of Arab-Americans and their perception by the rest of American society than September 11. It proves beyond a doubt that this tragedy produced a profound impact not only on the psychological state of many Americans and Arab-Americans but it also changed the perception of being Arab.
It is necessary to underline that Arab-Americans traditionally felt being different in American society because they have never totally accepted by the local communities as Americans and, what is more some of Arab-Americans could not identify themselves with this community. In actuality, Abraham (1989) argues that many Arab-Americans felt their difference and even exclusion from the society because they could not identify themselves with American or Arab-American community. (more…)

Custom essay on The meaning of “Arab” to Arab-Americans

// July 3rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays

Basically, Arab-American community is traditionally perceived as the community constituted by people originating from Arab countries. At the same time, the self-perception of the community differs consistently from the traditional view on this community from the part of Americans. It should be pointed out that the views on the concept of “Arab” and the perception of the Arab identity of Arab-American community is extremely diverse that, to a significant extent, is determined by the ethnic and cultural diversity of this community as well as by the difference of the impact of Arab culture on the members of this community.
In this respect, it is possible to refer to the study conducted by Barbara C. Asward (2003), in which the author researches the ethnic background of Arab-American community. In fact, the author points out that Arab-Community comprises not only representatives of the Arab world, i.e. people originating from Arab countries, but also people that have practically no ethnic links to Arabs. Instead, a part of Arab-American community is represented by immigrants from Northern Africa, including such countries as Egypt, Tunis, Algeria, as well as countries of the Middle East and Asia, including Iran or Afghanistan. In such a way, it is obvious that these people cannot perceive themselves as Arab because the difference in the ethnic origin naturally leads to the difference in cultural views. At any rate, it is obvious that these people cannot identify themselves as Arabs, instead they view it is a concept that is imposed on them by Americans, i.e. by American society. As Kristine J, Ajrouch (2000) points out often the concept of Arab is a kind of common concept of all people originating from the Middle East and related regions and all people that are viewed by Americans as Arabs are identified as Arabs, regardless their actual ethnicity. (more…)

Custom essays on Arab Americans

// June 22nd, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays

Speaking about the choice of Arab Americans in identifying multiracial identity I would like to make a stress on the fact that a number of them. The United States of America has already become a home for a number of immigrants. Arab culture has become essential part in the whole United States culture. Immigrants from Syria, Lebanon, and other Arabian countries are essential part of Arabians living now in the United States. They are considered to be one of first Arab immigrants arriving to the United States. The Arabian Culture gave a number of outstanding people to the United States and seriously influenced the whole American Culture. The first Arabian Immigrants appeared in the 19th century and since then, they occupied their personal part within the American society, dealing mainly with trading. I think that Arab Americans equally with many other nationalities took an active part in building contemporary America: “The Arab American history is an on-going story from the first early settlers through the Great Migration and on to modern day. Arab Americans have made a significant contribution to the history of the United States through their achievements in the arts, science, politics, community development, entertainment, sports, civil rights and social justice” (Arab American National Museum, 2010). Hence we should not forget about the fact that even during the world wide emancipation American Arabian still keep their unique traditions and are close to the same race people. (more…)