Anti-Arab racism

Anti-Arab racism, also called Anti-Arabism, Anti-Arab sentiment, or Arabophobia, refers to feelings and expressions of hostility, hatred, discrimination, fear, or prejudice toward Arab people, the Arab world or the Arabic language on the basis of an irrational disdain for their ethnic and cultural affiliation.

Notable historical instances of anti-Arab racism include the expulsion of the Moriscos from 1609 to 1614, the pacification of Algeria from 1830 to 1875, the Libyan Genocide from 1929 to 1934, the Nakba in Mandatory Palestine from 1947 to 1949, and the Zanzibar massacre in 1964. In the modern era, anti-Arabism is apparent in many nations, including the United States and Israel, as well as parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In the United States, anti-Arab racism surged after the September 11 attacks, resulting in widespread racial profiling and hate crimes against Arab Americans. Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories face institutionalized segregation and discrimination, which several scholars have characterized as a form of apartheid. Various advocacy organizations have been formed to protect the civil rights of individuals of Arab descent in the United States, such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American–Islamic Relations.

Arabs are people whose native language is Arabic. People of Arabic origin, in particular native English and French speakers of Arab ancestry in Europe and the Americas, often identify themselves as Arabs. Due to widespread practice of Islam among Arab populations, Anti-Arabism is commonly confused with Islamophobia.

There are prominent Arab non-Muslim minorities in the Arab world. These minorities include the Arab Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain, among other Arab countries. There are also sizable minorities of Arab Jews, Druze, Baháʼí, and nonreligious people.

Anti-Arab prejudice is suggested by many events in history. In the Iberian Peninsula, when the Reconquista by the indigenous Christians from the Moorish colonists was completed with the fall of Granada, all non-Catholics were expelled. In 1492, Arab converts to Christianity, called Moriscos, were expelled from Spain to North Africa after being condemned by the Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish word "moro", meaning moor, today carries a negative meaning.

After the annexation of the Muslim-ruled state of Hyderabad by India in 1948, about 7,000 Arabs were interned and deported.

The Zanzibar Revolution of January 12, 1964, ended the local Arab dynasty. As many as 17,000 Arabs were exterminated by black African revolutionaries, according to reports, and thousands of others fled the country.

In The Arabic Language and National Identity: a Study in Ideology, Yasir Suleiman notes of the writing of Tawfiq al-Fikayki that he uses the term shu'ubiyya to refer to movements he perceives to be anti-Arab, such as the Turkification movement in the Ottoman Empire, extreme-nationalist and Pan-Iranist movements in Iran and communism. The economic boom in Iran which lasted until 1979 led to an overall increase of Iranian nationalism sparking thousands of anti-Arab movements. In al-Fikayki's view, the objectives of anti-Arabism are to attack Arab nationalism, pervert history, emphasize Arab regression, deny Arab culture, and generally be hostile to all things Arab. He concludes that, "In all its various roles, anti-Arabism has adopted a policy of intellectual conquest as a means of penetrating Arab society and combatting Arab nationalism."