This is the question posed by Stephen Tamari, an associate professor of historical studies at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, who recently was awarded a prestigious 2008-2009 Fulbright Scholarship. This question n the title of a teaching module Tamari developed for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University n suddenly gains political weight as Republicans launch the allegation that Barack Obama is “Arab” or “Arab-American” in an attempt to scare voters away from him.
Tamari’s answer to his own question n his core definition of “Arab” n is simple enough: “Arabs are those who speak Arabic as their native tongue and who identify themselves as Arabs.” That certainly leaves out Obama, who speaks English as his native tongue and identifies himself as American or African-American.
Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing demagogue from Missouri, suddenly is trying to compete with the likes of Tamari as a scholar of Arab languages and peoples. On Sept. 22, Limbaugh said of Obama on his radio show, “He’s Arab. You know, he’s from Africa. He’s from Arab parts of Africa. He’s not n his father was n he’s not African-American. The last thing that he is is African-American.” Having failed to beat Obama because he is “black,” the Republicans have now resorted to trying to beat him because he is not “black.”
If Limbaugh were right about Obama’s origins, by the way, Obama would be both African-American and Arab-American, since it is possible to be defined both by an ancestral country and a language. But Limbaugh is not right. Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., was from Kenya, where the main languages are Swahili and English. Arabic was not his father’s native language, and neither Obama ever self-identified as an Arab. Obama’s father was not Arab, Obama is not an Arab, and Obama is not an Arab-American.
Limbaugh has less to say about Obama’s mother, S. Ann Dunham Sutoro, presumably because, as a white woman from Kansas, there is nothing in her image that might scare American voters. (Amazingly, a majority of Americans now appear willing to accept that a white woman from Kansas can marry a black man from Kenya and give birth to a mixed son who is worthy of holding the highest office in the land.)
All of these facts are of no interest to Limbaugh and his fellow hardcore Republicans as they try to smear a candidate that is beating them on the issues and moving this country n finally n in the worldly direction of diversity. Limbaugh is merely trying to muddy the waters, whether or not he actually believes the untruths he is spreading. It’s similar to the futile Republican effort to dress Obama up as a Muslim n that is, when he isn’t being vilified for his loyalty to his Christian pastor! This is all misinformation, which is never aimed at the people who know what’s going on; it’s aimed at the people who have no clue n which, unfortunately, on most complex subjects, is a large number of Americans.
Back to the complex reality. Professor Tamari, the Fulbright scholar, writes:
“The Arab world is not to be confused with the ‘Middle East,’ a strategic designation developed during the heyday of the British empire, which encompasses such non-Arab countries as Israel, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And though Arab history is intertwined with Muslim history, the Arab world does not correspond to the Muslim world. There are significant non-Muslim Arab communities and most Muslims are, in fact, from large non-Arab countries.”
Interestingly, the “17 independent countries that make up the Arab world” listed by Tamari n Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon n include the ancestral country of St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay, who is of Lebanese descent. So, is Mayor Slay an Arab? No, though Slay’s own ethnic heritage calls into doubt the simplistic concepts of “white” vs. “black” as they play out incessantly in our local politics. Perhaps a local Obama will rise and move St. Louis past this false divide.