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-   -   Question for Europeans (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/question-for-europeans-724396/)

waring Jul 31st, 2007 06:39 AM

Semites are allegedly the descendants of Shem, one of Noah's sons, and is a linguistic and ethnic grouping including both Arab and Hebrew.

Anti-Semitic has come to mean anti Jewish, rather ironically, as Arabs are Semites, they cannot really be anti-semitic.

ira Jul 31st, 2007 06:50 AM

>Anti-Semitic has come to mean anti Jewish, rather ironically, as Arabs are Semites, they cannot really be anti-semitic.<

Well, if you believe that the Hebrew Bible is a true account, Arabs are descended from Ham, and are Hamitic, as in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, not Semitic.

Additionally, though both Jews and Muslims claim descent from Abraham, the one is descended from Isaac and Jacob, the other from Ishmael.

Anti-Semitism has always meant un unreasoning and unreasonable prejudice against those of the Jewish faith, independent of their racial background.

It has been around long before anyone began calling Arabs Semitic.

((I))

ira Jul 31st, 2007 06:52 AM

PS,

Getting back to the OT,
>Why would a European want to live in America instead of Europe?<

You don't have to have as many guards at the places of worship.

((I))

waring Jul 31st, 2007 07:06 AM

Egyptians and Libyans were descended from Ham, but not the Arabs.

Hashemite is way later and refers to Mohamed's great grandfather.

Abraham was a descendant of Shem, from whom both Jews and Arabs claim descent. From which of Abraham's sons they derive is consequently not relevant.

No to living in America. A violent society.

smueller Jul 31st, 2007 07:40 AM


This thread is beginning to unravel, but sometimes they become even more interesting when that happens. Anyway...

From my office Webster's dictionary -
anti-semite: A person who is prejudiced against Jews.

nanabee Jul 31st, 2007 07:45 AM

Well getting back to the OP question, I would like to ask the Europeans living in the US what brought them here, what do they like about the US that they don't have in Europe, and what they miss the most about their hometown?

altamiro Jul 31st, 2007 07:48 AM

Anti-semite has not much to do with the cultural and language group of Semites. "Anti-semites" was a _self-description_ of a group of German army officers (end of the 19th century) who didnīt want to accept Jewish officers in the army. While in their time they were largely obscure, many of their ideas (and members) as well as the name fed into Nazi movements decades later.

waring Jul 31st, 2007 07:50 AM

Semitic as a term to describe Jews and Arabs is older (1787)than the term anti-semitic (1860) to describe prejudices against both, becoming a term specifically anti-Judaic in the 1880's.

mike_b12 Jul 31st, 2007 09:46 AM

Free refills, all you can eat. One reason many Americans are overweight!

kerouac Jul 31st, 2007 10:10 AM

KFC in Avignon is now offering free refills. It's the beginning of the end in France.


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