Persians Not Arabs

With all due respect... I understand that many PERSIANS have something or another against being mistaken for an Arab, however, you're making it sound like an insult... and being a Half-Persian Half-Arab myself, I take that to heart.

What you must realize is that WE ARE ALL EQUAL HUMANS BEINGS, however, languages, cultures, traditions, customs and sadly to say, yes even religions divide us.
In the case of Religions however, don't blame the Religion itself or even God, blame the ones who undermine the religion for their own personal gains. I'm Muslim, but I have nothing against Christians, Jewish People, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs or even Atheists, so long as the individual is not purposely causing harm unto innocent people.

Please do not make Islam look bad or any other religion for that matter... God did not intend for 'religions' to divide people, rather they were supposed to unite and strengthen people, provide social order and personal integrity.

I appreciate your opinion and I do not have anything at all personal against you... this is my point of view and you are allowed to disagree.

Peace and Blessings be upon you.

WAS ON MY BIRTHDAY !!

IM IRANIAN WE RULE !!!

It is indeed an insult to be called someone you are not. This article shows to me that Iranians are proud of their identity and culture that is distinct from Arab and not Islamic.

The author doesn't make Islam look bad by twisting any facts, she mentiones facts about the way Islam was forced upon Persia. This is history and if it makes religion look bad so be it. It is very important to face facts even if you don't like them.
Roman Catholic Church used the same method of converting Muslims, Jews and killed many during Crusades in middle ages and Catholics have to live with these facts. Does it make Catholic Religion look bad? It does, and what? Maybe Catholics should question the infalibility of The Pope and other doctrines that lead to it. Religion always divides and controls, disfiguring the face of Loving God, think about it...

I completely agree with Edie. I certainly wouldn't want to be compared to something I'm not. The author just wants to clearify that although Persians and Arabs live in the middle east, they are NOT one and the same. Persians have a rich culture and heritage, and in the time period when the kings of Persia were governing an empire and enacting Human Rights and interacting with other nations on an international scale; arabs were just nomads wandering the Saudi deserts. You would hardly imagine an Arab coming up with a Declaration of Human Rights back then. I understand your need to defend the arab half of your heritage Moeca$h, but facts are facts after all, and you have to acknoledge that and the fact that Iranians DO NOT like being called ARABS, especially someone like me. WE DONT EVEN RESEMBLE EACHOTHER. That's like comparing Germans to Chinese!

arab or persian... same thing, get over it. either way USA is gonna be stupid and invade u for oil. MmmMMmm oil is good with coffee.

PASDARE NAME PAKE PARS TA HAMISHEIM.The Great Persians are simialar to no body especially arabs.they're closer to the Italians and Greeks more.For isntance : the colour of the flag:
Italy: left is GREEN,MIDDLE is WHITE ,righ RED.IRAN: up is GREEN,MIDDLE is WHITE,DOWN is RED.They wven look like each other.
Thanks ,bye

I am an Iranian(Persian)and proud of it. Your article was very true and informative.
We are also proud of the fact that we did not lose our identity but the rest of the Middle East did.... for example Syria, Iraq, Egypt and so on and so forth. There are no Phoenicians, Sumerians, Mesopotamians or Palestinians in left only their story lives on.They are all Arabs now. They speak and live as Arabs not as their original ant sisters. I can only say that even though Arabs came and conquered Persia for a long while but we fought them with everything we had and never surrendered completely. It is true Iranians are waking up and one day maybe not in my life time. We will again show the world why we are such noble and honorable people. We first and foremost are Persians. We maybe Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Bahaii and Zorasterian but we all are Persians (Iranians).

It's cool that you are trying to distinguish Iranians from Arabs but you obviously have a problem with Islam. And no, Iranians do not view Islam as an "Arab invention". Though you may wish they would, very few do. Iranians/Persians are Aryan which mean they are of Proto-Iranian stock (I use the term genetically not nationally)and are related to Afghanis, Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Ossetians (of Russia and Georgia).

i agree irans are not arabs

Iranians would just love to be white...lol...your hairy and dark so accept yourselves..stop trying to be white or relate to europeans because we greeks and italians think of you as hairy indians.

Not all Iranians are dark and this just shows how ignorant some people can be regarding historical as well as ethnical identity of other people groups.

Sorry to tell you Gino, but Im your real father, and Im persian

say hi to your mom for me

Thanks for this. I am arguing this subject right now, that Persians are not Arabs.

Perhaps someone could help me. What exactly is the ethnic background of a Persian vs. Arab, in modern terminology?

Persians are of indo-euorpean origin and Arabs are semitic peoples. I hope it helps!

All are Aryans. Dark skinned Aryans, Brown skinned Aryans. No one in Africa ever swung from trees. So please educate your ignorant self. Stop watching them medieval movies, retire that playstation, & pick up a book with real references. Stop spreading racism around the globe. There were only 3 groups of people- white , black & yellow. All people of brown/red came from race mixing. Be proud to have some African in your veins because whites history is made up. Conquest isn't history. Unless you want a history of barbarians & chaos. African civilization was here before Mohammed was even born, before there was a Germany, before there was a Europe, before Europeans wore clothes or washed their stink butts. Stop spreading hates & lies. White is white, black is black, & brown/red are mixed up between the two.

So Iranians are Aryans and proud of it? Just like Hitler! Man, I'm so glad you guys aren't arabs. Pheww!

And I've been to Greece, and was really surprised how dark and hairy the people really were! I thought I was in Baghdad!

I'm a Turk and I think Iranians mixed with Arabs, since Iranians are generally darker than Turks and resemble Arabs. Not all, but some.. anyhow, we are all human beings and equal so who cares?

WE ARE PERSIANS...and i take it as an insult to my culture if someone call me an Arab...i dont speak arabic, i dont want to speak arabic, i dont like arabic culture or history!
Perisa forEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I didn't say that Arab culture is bad, or that it is insult to be an Arab, but I wanted people to realize that it is not polite to be ignorant about one's culture.

Another thing is the Islamization of Iranians by Muslim Arabs, which happened by force, hence, learning Arabic at schools. It is forced upon Iranians, jus as polish people were forced to learn Russian at schools during the communist rule. Guess what? It made us dislike Russian.

We are not Arab."Alone among the Middle Eastern peoples conquered by the Arabs, the Iranians did not lose their language or their identity"
Yes it is.
some Differnce between Persian And aRABs:We were friends of jews from cyrus the great time to now,But arabs are jews enemies.We Like drinking wine,signing,dancing and arabs like crying.We like western culture and arabs hate this!We prtetend to be muslems and they are muslems.
Please read THIS "Iran Vs. Saudi Arabia: Who can be a better US ally"
Link is here
http://watandost.blogspot.com/2007/02/iran-vs-saudi-arabia-who-can-be-better.html

I def. see Persians as being somewhat more open and free in terms of conservative tradition and religion than Arabs. And yes, Iranians probably have more in common these days with Indo-Europeans of the world (i.e. the Western world) than they do with Arabs.

Alright well.. I'm half Persian half Italian.
Mums from Italy and my dads from Iran and I'm Baha'i.
I live in Australia/Melbourne and I don't think calling a Persian an "Arab" is an insult, i mean... Most people that don't know much about the middle eastern area would call you an Arab if you were Persian because look at it this way.. Iran was taken over by the Islamic culture and Islamic people are Arabs right? So why wouldn't others think we are Arab... But look who cares man, we can get called names, blah blah... but in the end we know who we are! We know who we stand for, so don't make a big fit over this? It's seriously pathetic. And this comment is coming from a 15 year old, and no I'm not that "nerd in the class" or whatever... I'm actually kinda bad in school and all but I still know about this because It's what I have been taught by my father.

Anyway grow up don't fit about small things.
But yes, we are not Arabs. We are Persians full stop!

I can understand that been persian is different from been arab, but why for God sake would someone kiss the white race boot and do anything he can to prove to his master white blue/green eyed european that he is Aryan. At the end of the day, Aryan sounds more like barbarian.

Bottom line is that both white europeans and dark arabs kicked the persians ass. I mean everybody in the western world knows how the spartans slapped you in the face, then the arab muslims introduced you to monotheism after centries of darkness in worshipping fire and all that non sens staff. Get over it A-rab-yans!!!!

One could say that Iranians look like Turks, but Iranians are darker on average. Also culturally Iran and Turkey are quite similar. I love Iran.

Lots of opinions here, but i'll just add one for the hell of it.

I'm Iranian and I live in the south of the United States. Life here isn't that bad at all, but there is a great deal of ass-backwardness. We've got plenty of fanatical christian missionaries, phallic racists, hypocrites, guilty whites, angry blacks, and all sorts of other types of bastards.

Regardless of this, i don't have a problem with someone mistaking me for an Arab. To be perfectly honest, I myself can't tell an Iranian from an Arab. I've seen dark Arabs and dark Iranians. I've also seen lighter Iranians and lighter Arabs. How in the hell could i tell them apart? The only way to identify an Iranian is by hearing him speak his language. Do you expect every American, European, Asian, and African to be familiar with the Iranian language? If so, you're completely deluded. Of course, history books in high schools are written by european americans for european americans, but as far as i'm concerned, it means absolutely nothing. In this society today, what is an historian? He's nothing but a smooth talker or a featured individual on a talk show. The industrial world doesn't care about the historical dignity of any nation, including its european background. Today, if a European American is over-zealously holding to traditions from a different era in history (for example, an Italian holding to pure Roman ideals, etc.), they will be isolated from their environments. The same is true for any individual, regardless of culture.

You can not manufacture culture over the internet or by spitefully holding to a way of life which is suited for a completely different era in history. I say this even to the author of this pathetic article (if you want to call it that): take a look around you for a change. Don't you see the fact that making absurd expectations of people (expecting americans/europeans to be able to tell Iranians from Arabs, which i can't even do as an Iranian) is a factor in perpetuating divisions among diverse populations in countries? What kind of ass-backwardness are you promoting?

Arabs are too proud of then selves which is stupid

but I never knew that Iranians are too proud !! which is sick

my mother is persian ... my fathers is Arab

how can I live now ?

I live in an Arabic country ( in the Gulf ) they are stupid because they think they are better that iranians with everything !


but I never thought that Iranians think the same .... so ... the point it ... BOTH of you are stupid if you think this way

just grow up and clean your heart

sorra, i totally agree with everything u said!

Anyway, just one thing, is it true that the iranians are the whitest-coloured race in the world, along with the germans? Because one thing, I do agree that some of them are very white, but most of them really aren't. Any help?

ARABS...IRANIANS....PERSIANS....ARYANS...WHO CARES?!!! AIN'T NONE OF YA'LL GETTING THROUGH AIRPORT SECURITY/TSA ANYWAY!!! LOL!!! IT'S ABOUT TIME SOMEONE ELSE HAS TO DEAL WITH RACIAL PROFILING :)

I\'m syrian, and Syria is one of 24 Arab nations...yes you read that right TWENTY-FOUR. Yes there are other ethnicities in the Middle East, like Jews,Persians, Kurds, Armenians, Afghanis,Kazakhstanis...etc. But Arabs outnumber all other groups combined many times over therefore its understandable that when your Middle-Eastern, Westerners would mistake you for an Arab,

and dont give me that \"we dont look like you\" bullshit, because the \"Arab World\" as we call it spans from the Persian Gulf at the heart of the middle-east to the western edge of Africa, so for example we as Syrians share the physical features of everyone in the Asia-minor/Mediterranean sea region, which include: (A)Arab countries:Lebanon,Palestine/Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Moracco (B) European Countries: Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, In addition to Semi-European Turky of course.
some people will wonder...What did he say France and Spain?...yes i did..as a matter of fact Arabs conquered and occupied Spain and Portugal for 400+ years! by 800 A.D. the Muslim/Arabic Empire spanned from China/India to Portugal/Spain. You think they did not mix with those populations? lol being Arabic I can assure you they \"mixed\" a whole lot...like-multiple-women-at-a-time alot lol.
what you should take away from this is that \"Arabs\" can look like anything out there, i mean you got 24 countries spanning from asia minor to end of Africa. we may look the whitest of white, or the blackest of black and the majority are of medium complexion, which is to be expected of course. and by the way, racisim by skin color is NOT A CONCEPT in the arabic world, it\'s very difficult to understand for other cultures but race by color simply does not exist in the arab world, Arabs tend to place a much higher importance on religion and what religious group you belong to.

so to our persian author, i\'m sorry your insulted when called an Arab, because you will never know what it\'s like to be Arabic and to meet any Arab from any of the 24 Arab countries and be able to communicate and relate to them as brothers and sisters of the same culture, history and values although they could be of completely different color,religion or even continent.
And Remember this simple fact for the rest of your life...A PERSIAN HAS ONLY ONE COUNTRY AN ARAB HAS 24!

you all are the same to the west..The u.s will invade Iran just like we invaded Iraq and take your oil...You people are so pathetic....

This is just the problem, that the west is so ignorant when it comes to the culture of other peoples. Persian culture exists for thousands of years. Yes, US may invade, but it will be invaded by someone else someday. What will happen to the American culture then?

Iam proud to be a Persian, but I have no difference, most of my friends are arabs, I really dont care, to me most importnt thing is the behaivieor of the person.
By the way who says that you cann\'t see the difference between arabs and persian (there are a big difference)

good article thanks.. about the comments : its funny that there are so many uneducated people in the world!

yall go read some history about IRAN and Persian culture!

Iran means Land of Aryans! for those who doesn't know!
And yes i don\'t like it when someone mistaken me arab!