Why do North Africans and other non-Arabians consider themselves Arabs?

Question

Genetically speaking, they are not Arabs in any sense but native North Africans who adopted Islam at one stage in history and spoke a sort of creole-Arabic. Even today, North Africans speak "dialects" of Arabic which could be classed as separate langauges, much like the Romance languages (e.g. Spanish, French, etc.) which descend from Vulgar Latin. But French people are not Romans, so why are North African arabs?

From Wikipedia:
"Different genetic studies along with historians such as Gabriel Camps and Charles-André Julien lend support to the idea that the bulk of modern Northwest Africans irrespective of language are descended from Berbers. The medieval Arabic historian Ibn Khaldun also expressed this understanding in his writings. Furthermore, the Arabic dialects spoken in Algeria (especially in some parts of the Petite Kabylie like El Milia, Jijel and Setif) and the Maghreb countries in general contain a large number of Berber words, idioms and other linguistic features."

"Genetic analysis of modern Egyptians reveals that they have paternal lineages common to indigenous North Africans/Berber populations primarily, and to Near Eastern peoples to a lesser extent. These lineages would have spread during the Neolithic and maintained by the predynastic period.[31][32] Studies based on maternal lineages also link Egyptians with people from modern Eritrea/Ethiopia such as the Tigre.[33][34] University of Chicago Egyptologist Frank Yurco confirmed this finding of historical and regional continuity, saying:

Certainly there was some foreign admixture [in Egypt], but basically a homogeneous African population had lived in the Nile Valley from ancient to modern times... [the] Badarian people, who developed the earliest Predynastic Egyptian culture, already exhibited the mix of North African and Sub-Saharan physical traits that have typified Egyptians ever since... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptians

Lotus Pheonix, yes Arabs invaded North Africa, and mixed with local inhabitants to a certain degree, but genetic evidence has proven that almost all North Africans are of native African stock. The Arabs in the Sudan speak a kind of simplified language that descends from Arabic, but are not genetically Arabs. They are a mix of Berbers, Copts and other native African peoples.

Morocco and Egypt are not dominated by Arabs. They are dominated by people who are descended from the ancient Egyptians, who gave up their native languages and religions and adopted a kind of Arabic, as well as Islam. They call themselves Arabs, but the point that my question raises is the fact that genetically, this is not the case. They are Arabized, perhaps, but not Arab.

Answer 1

They consider themselves Arabs because of the connections between arab-identity and Islam and because they speak dialects descended from Arabic, whether or not they are genetically arabs. In this sense, the definition of an "arab" could be one who speaks some form of Arabic.

Answer 2

I think it comes down to one simple fact:

People do not identify themselves with a cultural group based on a DNA test, they do so based on the way they are raised, what they are exposed and what is passed down from each generation within that setting.

Clearly there are Arabs over there and I do not believe you should generalize by saying all N. Africans consider themselves Arabs since there must be some that do not.

The other reason could simply be that being "Arab" is seen by them as being better than "African" since the majority of the World seems to associate negative things with the word - hunger, aids, war, genocide, drought, desert, all the stuff that make the news more than the positive...although now it might be better to be "African" because too many people hear "Arab" and think "Terrorist"

Answer 3

is because the arab influence, all the nothern african peoples were conquered by the arabs and their influence is deep. Is part of the arab world because that influence despite they have local roots. Is like the latins, the roman empire doesnt exist anymore but france, spain, portugal and italy have a great influence of the romans and throught this latin america have such influence.
You can see that there are many cultures with sunch influence, the germanic culture have many cultural sons like the anglo saxon (US and UK) culture or the escandinavian culture) the slav culture is the basis for almost all eastern europe and the chinise culture is the greater influence in vietnam, korea and even japan

Answer 4

North Africans are Arabs and Sunni Muslims and it has been for 13 centuries, being an Arab is not related to a specific race but its related to the whole culture and traditions in those countries in other words for cultural and religion reasons, the Berbers are also another complement Mosaic of north Africa's culture and the Berbers are also Muslim Sunni minorities but perfectly integrated with their Arabs brothers in religion, the same as the Kurds, Turkmans communities in the middle east and other minorities in the Middle east. same issue with Egyptians who are Arabs for cultural and religion reasons even with the coptic minorities. again being an Arab is not related to blood or race but anyone who speaks Arabic either classic or dialects is considered as an Arab.

Why Jewish from Russia, from Poland, Jewish from Ethiopia and from planet Jupiter consider themselves Israelis???

Answer 5

Probably because of their common religion of Islam. Until I asked the question on here, I thought the Moors who invaded Spain and stayed for centuries were Arabs because they were Muslims.

Answer 6

The mixing has been going on for a long time now so it is impossible to say that North Africans are today, not partly Arab.

Answer 7

my god what is that stupid question ? there is no more ethnic arab (those who pretend that, mostly gulf arabs, are people who don't know their origins) tribal arabians are a small minority in muslims countries the arab speaking are arabs now

Answer 8

when they were converting to islam, they probably picked up their language and sorts. just a guess. like the african slaves in America who picked up English with christianity

Answer 9

Why do Afrikaneers consider themselves white?

Arabs INVADED north Africa like Europeans invaded Southern and Western Africa. NOW you have blacks, arabs, black arabs.

I don't know that all N. Africans say they are Arab but its not IMPOSSIBLE, look at Morocco and Egypt...Arabs totally dominate both countries. Sudan has Arabs killing the Blacks. Arabs ARE in Africa.

Answer 10

wow it gets to you doesnt it....