In theArab world,racism targetsblack Arabs, and non-Arabs ethnic minorities such asArmenians,sub-Saharan Africans,Berbers, theSaqaliba,Southeast Asians,Druze,Jews,Kurds,Copts,Assyrians,Persians,Turks and otherTurkic peoples, andSouth Asians living in Arab countries of theMiddle East. Arab racism also targets the expat majority of theArab states of the Persian Gulf coming from South Asian (Sri Lanka,Pakistan,India, andBangladesh) groups as well as Black, European, and Asian groups that are Muslim.
Racism in the Arab world has been linked to notions ofArab supremacy,[1][2][3] manifesting in various forms of discrimination against non-Arab communities. Historically, this has included the marginalization of groups such as theBerbers in North Africa,Kurds in the Middle East, and Black Africans, likeMasalit andDinka in countries, likeSudan.[4]
The previously taboo topics of race and racism in the Arab world have been explored more since the rise of foreign, private, and independent media. In one example,Al-Jazeera's critical coverage of theDarfur crisis led to the arrest and conviction of its Khartoum bureau chief.[5] The Darfur conflict has been characterized by racially motivated violence, with reports indicating that Arab militias, known asJanjaweed, targeted non-Arab ethnic groups, leading to allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.[6]
Medieval Arab attitudes to Black people varied over time and individual attitude, but tended to be negative. Though theQur'an expresses no racial prejudice, ethnocentric prejudice towards black people is widely evident among medieval Arabs, for a variety of reasons:[7] theirextensive conquests andslave trade; the influence ofAristotelian ideas regarding slavery, which someMuslim philosophers directed towardsZanj[8] and the influence ofJudeo-Christian ideas regarding divisions among humankind.[9] On the other hand, theAfro-Arab authorAl-Jahiz, himself having a Zanj grandfather, wrote a book entitledSuperiority of the Blacks to the Whites,[10] and explained why the Zanj were black in terms ofenvironmental determinism in the "On the Zanj" chapter ofThe Essays.[11] By the 14th century, a significant number of slaves came from either West or Central Africa; Lewis argues that this led to the likes ofEgyptian historian Al-Abshibi (1388–1446) writing that "[i]t is said that when the [black] slave is sated, he fornicates, when he is hungry, he steals."[12]
Some charge that "ultra-Arabism and Jihadism have been responsible for widespread persecution and genocide." such Saddam's using chemical weapons and gas against theKurds during the bombings of Halabja in northern Iraq. "The Kurds, a non-Arab people whose language belongs to the Iranian group, have suffered from persecution under the Baath of Iraq and Syria, especially since the departure of British and French forces in the late 1940s." (Kurds are also claiming rights in Iran and Turkey.) The Berbers, the pre-Arab native peoples of North Africa, have been victimized by the Arabs in North Africa.[13]
There are historic racial divisions,[14] racial and religious prejudices inIraq, including on Kurds, on Shia and the Marsh Arabs.[15]
Author draws parallel betweenArab nationalism andTurkish nationalism, both were "likewise evolving into the "racial" stage, the ideal being a great "Pan-Arab" empire, embracing not merely the ethnically Arab peninsula-homeland, but also the regions ofMesopotamia,The Levant,Egypt,Tripoli,North Africa and theSudan."[16]
A writer on theDurban conference regarding racism suggests: That stressing out that "Arabism is racism" would have been an interesting debating topic. Yet, he adds that "theOICcountries were very clever in how they deflected theslavery issue that could so easily have been turned on them with a vengeance."[17]
SomeMuslim activists have also expressed that "Arabism is racism, pure and simple."[18] There was Sheikh Mustafa al-Maraghi, who in a famous 1938 essay dismissed the goal of [pan] Arab unity as racist.[19]
Arab Muslim authors in "Arab-Iranian relations":
Much ink has flowed on the issue of Arab nationalism. Some people believe it to be a racist movement, advocating the superiority of the Arabs.[20]
Ali A. Allawi, the formerIraqi Minister of Defense and Finance, envisioning a peaceful Iraq: "Arabism, racism and sectarianism – would be dethroned. Iraq would be at peace with itself and with its region."[21]
In 1960's, theFrench Comite d' Action de Defense De- mocratique published a pamphlet titled Racism and Pan-Arabism, its introduction followed by an article by the well knownFrench sociologist, anthropologist & political leader:Jackes Soustelle to fight against all kinds of racism, this was followed by a paper by Shlomo Friedrich on "Pan-Arabism: A New Racist Menace?" who offered a sharp critique ofNasser's book The Philosophy of the Revolution, and it terms it a mere pale imitation ofHitler'sMein Kampf.[22]
According to Dr. Michael Penn:[23]
Contrary to many present-day stereotypes of early Islam, throughout much of the seventh and early eighth centuries, admission into the umma was reserved exclusively for Arabs. Religious conversion was predicated on ethnic conversion. For a non-Arab to become Muslim, that individual first had to gain membership in an Arab tribe by becoming the mawlā (client) of an Arab sponsor. From a seventh-century Islamic perspective, ethnicity and religion were not independent variables. All Muslims were Arabs, and ideally all Arabs were Muslims.
Some of the persecuted victims of racism and discrimination in the Arab world include: Sub-SaharanAfricans inEgypt,[24] including onEritreans,[25] and oppressingDarfurian refugees,[26]Algeria,Mauritania – fighting off racist policies in these countries,[27][28][29] inIraq where blacks face racism,[30][31]Kurds inSyria and inIraq,[32][33][34][35]Copts,[36]it worsened underpan-Arabism byNasser and with the empowerment of theMuslim Brotherhood.[37][38]Al-Akhdam inYemen,[39] as well as slaves who fight the stigma of their status as 'slaves' in impoverished Yemen,[40]Persians' historic struggle against the 'Arab supremacy,'[41]Berbers inNorth Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya ),[42][43][44][45][46]South Asians andSoutheast Asians (migrant workers and maids in the Gulf Arab nations),[47][48][49][50]Jews (see:Antisemitism in the Arab world, in a 2009PEW poll, 90% of the Middle East were found to viewJews unfavorably).[51] Although slavery was officially abolished in 1981, a 2012CNN report suggested that 10% to 20% of theMauritanian population was enslaved with a correlation with skin color – darker-skinned Mauritanians were often enslaved by lighter-skinned.[52]
Anti-Black racism in the Arab world stems from a long history of racial hierarchies established during thetrans-Saharan andIndian Ocean slave trades, which have left lasting legacies in social attitudes and power structures. Black Africans have been historically enslaved, marginalised, and stereotyped, particularly theZanj and other East African groups. In modern times, discrimination persists in the form of social exclusion, derogatory language, unequal access to jobs and education, and media portrayals that reinforce negative stereotypes. Black citizens in countries like Tunisia and migrants in Libya frequently report racist abuse, whileblackface and caricatured roles remain common in entertainment across the region.[53]
Though some countries have introduced anti-discrimination laws, Tunisia being the first Arab country to criminalize racial discrimination in 2018, implementation is uneven, and public awareness remains limited. Surveys byArab Barometer show that many citizens do not recognise anti-Black racism as a specific problem, and victims often avoid reporting incidents. Scholars also highlight the role of "white fragility" in Arab contexts, where defensiveness and denial hinder conversations about race and the acknowledgment of Black Arab identities.
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Anti-Kurdish sentiment, also known as anti-Kurdism or Kurdophobia, is hostility, fear, intolerance or racism against theKurdish people,Kurdistan,Kurdish culture, orKurdish languages.[54] A person who holds such positions is sometimes referred to as a "Kurdophobe".
Gérard Chaliand coined the term to describe how Kurds have been oppressed.[54] InTurkey, the government has historically denied Kurdish identity andlanguage.[55] InSyria andIraq, similar anti-Kurdish policies have caused significant harm, includinggenocidal campaigns in Iraq underSaddam Hussein.[56] Recently, conflicts like thefight againstISIS have increased awareness but also heightened anti-Kurdish actions and discrimination. Kurds there have been receiving death threats and demands for their expulsion.[57]
Antisemitism (prejudice against and hatred ofJews) has increased greatly in theArab world since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: thedissolution andbreakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; European influence, brought about byWesternimperialism andArab Christians;[58]Nazi propaganda andrelations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world;[59][60][61][62] resentment overZionism and the experience of theNakba;[61][63] the rise ofArab nationalism;[61] and the widespread proliferation ofanti-Jewish andanti-Zionistconspiracy theories.[64]
Traditionally,Jews in the Muslim world were considered to bePeople of the Book and were subjected todhimmi status. They were afforded relative security againstpersecution, provided they did not contest the varying inferior social and legal status imposed on them under Islamic rule.
While there were occasional antisemitic incidents before the 20th century, the tensions surroundingZionism and theintercommunal conflicts in Mandatory Palestine led to growing antisemitism in theArab world. During the 1930s and the 1940s several Jewish communities in the Arab world suffered frompogroms.[61] The status of Jews in Arab countries deteriorated further at the onset of theArab–Israeli conflict,[61] and following the1948 Arab–Israeli War, theforced expulsion of Palestinian Arabs, and thecreation of the State of Israel.[63]Israeli victories during the wars of1956 and1967 further increased tensions between Israel and its opponents—primarilyEgypt,Syria, andIraq.[65] However, by the mid-1970sthe vast majority of Jews had left Arab and Muslim countries, moving primarily to Israel,France, and theUnited States.[66] The reason for the exodus is considered to be primarily due to prolonged violence against Jews.[66]
By the 1980s, according to historianBernard Lewis, the volume of antisemitic literature published in the Arab world, and the authority of its sponsors, seemed to suggest that classical antisemitism had become an essential part of Arab intellectual life, considerably more than in late 19th- and early 20th-century France and to a degree that has been compared toNazi Germany.[67] The rise ofpolitical Islam during the 1980s and afterwards provided a new mutation ofIslamic antisemitism, giving the hatred of Jews a religious component.[59]
In their 2008 report on contemporary Arab-Muslim antisemitism, the IsraeliIntelligence and Terrorism Information Center dates the beginning of this phenomenon to the spread of classic EuropeanChristian antisemitism into the Arab world starting in the late 19th century.[68] In 2014, theAnti-Defamation League published a global survey of worldwide antisemitic attitudes, reporting that in the Middle East, 74% of adults agreed with a majority of the survey's eleven antisemitic propositions, including that "Jews have too much power in international financial markets" and that "Jews are responsible for most of the world's wars."[69][70]
According to a statement by Fred Halliday, theBa'athists in Iraq were inspired bySati' al-Husri and with rhetoric tinged withpan-Arabism andanti-Iranian sentiment. In the decade and a half after the Ba'ath party came to power, up to 200,000 Feyli Kurds were expelled from Iraq. In claiming to be "defenders of Arabism", Halliday asserts the Ba'ath promoted a myth of Persian migrants and communities in thePersian Gulf region to be comparable to "Zionists" settling Palestine.[71][72]
According toHolly Burkhalter ofHuman Rights Watch, in a statement made in testimony before the Congress of the United States, "It is fair to say that the Mauritanian government practices undeclared apartheid and severely discriminates on the basis of race."[73]
Beginning in 1991, elders of theZaghawa people of Sudan complained that they were victims of an intensifying Arab apartheid campaign.[74]Vukoni Lupa Lasaga has accused the Sudanese government of "deftly manipulat(ing) Arab solidarity" to carry out policies of apartheid and ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs inDarfur.[75]Alan Dershowitz has pointed to Sudan as an example of a government that deserves the appellation "apartheid",[76] and former CanadianMinister of JusticeIrwin Cotler has also criticized Sudan in similar terms.[77]
Black Egyptian PresidentAnwar Sadat faced insults of not looking "Egyptian enough" and "Nasser's black poodle".[78] An EgyptianNubian soccer playerShikabala stopped playing football for some time due to racist slurs by rival Egyptian fans during a game.[79] A group was shouting out "Shikabala" while pointing a black dog wearing the number 10, which was Zamalek football shirt.[80]Mona Eltahawy, the Egyptian journalist, found a deep-seated anti-black racism in her country, mainly against Sudanese, Nubian or other darker-skinned people.[81]
According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Sub-Saharan immigrants to Egypt often face physical violence and verbal abuse at the hands of the general public and law enforcement officials. Refugees from Sudan are especially targeted, with racial slurs like "oonga boonga" and "samara" (meaning "black") constituting the most typical insults. The EIPR attributes the violence and abuse to both a lack of government efforts at disseminating information, raising awareness and dispelling myths with regard to the economic contributions made by the newcomers, and stereotyping on the part of the Egyptian media.[82] Black women are also targets of sexual harassment.[78] As a remedy, the EIPR recommends that the Egyptian government "should intensify and accelerate efforts to combat racist xenophobic views towards migrant workers, especially those of Sub-Saharan origin, and to promote awareness of their positive contribution to society. The government should train all personnel working in the field of criminal justice and law enforcement officials in the spirit of respect for human rights and non-discrimination on ethnic or racial grounds."[82]
Many Egyptians distance themselves from African identity, aligning more with Arab and Middle Eastern identities. At the same time, Sub-Saharan Africans in Egypt report discrimination, and Egypt's internal groups (like Copts and secularists) use ancient heritage to resist Arab-Islamic associations.[83]
In March 2011, officials from theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees confirmed allegations of discrimination byTunisia against black Africans.[84] Sub-Saharan Africans were reportedly targeted by rebel forces during theLibyan civil war in 2011.[85][86][87]
