Arab





The word Arab is used with several meanings.

It is often used to refer to any person of the Middle East or North Africa
whose mother tongue is the Arabic language. Broadly, the term refers to
anyone of a people living in this area, even though such a people may have
no connection to Arabia, other than having been invaded during the Arab
expansion. The Berber peoples of North Africa, for example, though often
called Arabs by Westerners, are connected to Arabia only by often speaking
Arabic as a second language, since that remains the official language of the
country in which they live as a result of the Arab expansion.

Racially, an Arab is a person of Arabic descent, whose original ancestry
comes from the Arabian Peninsula. Arabs are a Semitic people, who trace
their ancestry from the ancient patriarch Abraham.

Most, but not all, Arabs have embraced the religion of Islam. Many American
Arabs are Christian Arabs from Syria and Lebanon.

Arabs are racially classified as White.