From: soufi@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Khaled S. Soufi)
Subject: Re: I am a phoenician! (was:Re: Arab identity)
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 20:02:06 GMT

howard@iscsvax.uni.edu writes:

>In article <1992Apr13.165921.366@ulrik.uio.no>, eliedw@hedda.uio.no (Elie Dib Wardini) writes:
>> The issue of Arab identity becomes much more difficult because it can mean so
>> much and it implies so much.
>> 
>> THe key to resolving this problem is: Pluralism and tolerance
>> 
>> 
>> Today the term Arab has changed. It has kept its ancient meaning besides its
>> newly acquired ones.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> elie dib wardini
>> 

>Elie W.,

>Your post was very informative. (I read a similar argument in the
>newspaper this week about the word "African-American". If a white South
>African immigrates to the U.S. and becomes a citizen, can he or she
>mark the box for "African-American" on a job application? Answer: NO!). 

>My question is about what a Phoenician is. Every time I hear it mentioned
>it seems like there is a strong sentiment against it. Did the Phoenicians
>oppress the Arabs, or what is the reason for the distinction? How does
>that affect racial/cultural differences in Lebanon today?  

While I am clearly not an authority on history, the Arabs and the
Phoenicians were two divergent cultures that existed in virtually two
different eras.  Therefore, there is nothing the Phoenicians have done
to conflict with the Arabic culture or vice versa.  However, Phoenicia
is a culture that ceased from existence hundreds of years BC (1100-625
BC to be exact).  Whatever happened to the Phoenicians after that is
shrouded in the mist of history (to quote a book I once have read).
Now, the part about the claims of some Lebanese to be Phoenicians
sounds mind boggling to many rational beings!  How on earth could
anyone find a link between some people who live in Lebanon today and
the Phoenicians who resided in the same area thousands of years ago!
These same people could not even agree on where they came from two
hundred years ago!

Of course, anybody could claim anything they want to be.  However, it
is clear in this case that the Phoenician culture is used as a phony
aegis for those Lebanese who are Arabophobic!  And that is precisely
what the rest of us try to point out every time the Phoenician thing
surfaces.  

As to your white South-African story, you are wrong to say that a
white coming from Africa could not say s/he is an African-American!
You cannot deny someone his origin (Africa) just because he is white
(and the trend is that most Africans are black).  The whole point of
using the term African-American I thought was to avoid the color issue
which is very important.  Finally, what keeps this country (the US)
standing is the very important emphasis that we all belong to the same
society now and that is the American society, regardless of our ethnic
and racial backgrounds.  Obviously, people ought to be allowed to
celebrate and maintain their cultural backgrounds so long as they
cause no harm to others.  However, we ought to hold no respect for
people who would use their cultural backgrounds (regardless of whether
their claims are true or false) to create schisms in the society.

>-Mary Howard

Viva Phoenicia :-)

-- 
+-----------Khaled Soufi-------------+--------------------------+
|   Department of Computer Science   | email: soufi@cs.uiuc.edu |
| U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | phone: (217)244-2274 (W) |
+------------------------------------+--------------------------+