There are many stereotypes that are attributed to Middle Eastern
culture. Below i will discuss a few that are attributed to Egypt.
The
first stereotype that caught my eye was that it is dangerous to travel
through Egypt. Like many stereotypes, this is rooted in some truth. Some
areas of Egypt travelers should stay clear from but that is the same
for all countries and even cities. If someone is in the United States
visiting they should probably stay away from the "rough" parts of the
big cities and the back roads of unpopulated areas where even someone
from the United States could get lost. The key is to do your homework
before you visit and have a plan once you get there. Stick to the more
populated major cities and if you do want to venture off the beaten path
make sure to have a respectable guide that can protect you and lead you
away from harm.
The second and third stereotype that I
would like to discuss is that all Egyptians are Muslim Arabs and that a
heavily bearded man is a terrorist or extremist. Although the majority
of the population is Muslim, they are not Arabic and the majority of
these Muslims follow the religion moderately. That is, most practice the
religion moderately and do not keep to the strict diet and social
guidelines that some may attribute to more devote Muslims. The second
part to that is also false. The vast majority of the population is a
Hamitic people with more links to Africa than to the rest of the Middle
East. A parallel stereotype of these people is that a bearded man is an
extremist or terrorist. This is seen throughout the Middle Eastern
culture and I think that, in general, it is misinterpreted. There are
bearded Muslims and Arabs that may be dangerous and "evil" but just like
any culture a few radical people can not be judged for the whole
population. The culture may be completely different than someone is used
too but that does not mean that all Middle Eastern men or Egyptians are
terrorists.
Sources:
http://fortheintolerants.com/2013/03/22/15-myths-about-egypt/
A comment on your use of terms:
ReplyDeleteEgyptians do by and large identify as Arabs. There is also controversy about the divisions 'Hamitic' and 'Semitic'. The terms themselves come more from Biblical narrative than any distinct genetic or biological difference, while genetic and biological differences correspond more to physical environment of ancestral origin (which gets mixed) than to racial or ethnic terms. Arabic has come to describe an ethnicity connected very strongly to language. The word 'Arabic' is actually used to describe things (including language), and the word used for describing the people is 'Arab'. Arabs are now most often Muslim (though the heritage has been traced to a particular tribe or group of tribes from the Arabian Peninsula centuries before Islam) but can definitely be other religions, particularly Christian. In Tucson and in Phoenix, for example, there are several churches of different denominations such as Coptic Egyptian and Syriac Orthodox that hold their services in Arabic for Arab Christian refugees who are living here.
...one more clarification - re-reading this I believe what Eric found in his source that Egyptians are not historically considered Arabs, and that is true. In other words, the earliest documents from Egypt were not connected to the Arabic language, and prior to Islam and the spread of the Arabic language, the people living in Egypt were not considered Arabs. Now, however, the story is different, as it is in all of the countries that identify as members of the Arab Nation.
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