Remember Ray Stevens? “A-hab, the A-rab?” Hope you don’t. It is something that could not (should not) be released today, that satire so corny, bordering on racist. Yet, some might retain that song or other such stereotypes about “Arabians,” or Arab Americans: “Fatima, sippin’ on a Coca-Cola;” or “Clyde,” the Camel, taking Ahab to the devious “Sultan’s” tent.
Such memes no longer please us. To the contrary, we now understand much about our languages and cultures—especially here in the Texas Rio Grande Valley—arises from various Middle East origins. Yet, amid the current violence in the Middle East, and despite our multi-cultural origins (nationally and locally) some ignorant racists—both sides of the Atlantic—ignore reason (and morals) and call for anti-Muslim, extreme violence.
Some (usually anonymously) call for obliterating all Palestinians! Then, of course, before and after those shrill cries, came, and still comes anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic rhetoric, threats. Stop it! We, here, resist. We protest. Not in our name! Many surnames in the Valley are of Jewish origin (Ashkenazim, from the tribe of Benjamin, or Sephardim, from the tribe of Judah). Many first names (Omar, Osiris, Caleb, yes, even Fatima) are of Jewish and/or Arabic origin. The Spanish word many of us who are bi-lingual in the Valley utter daily--”Ojalá”--is, in its origins, a prayer to God, to Allah, for hope, for aid or comfort.
Jews came first to this area in 1519. Many (“conversos,” or crypto-Jews) had been forcibly converted to Catholicism, but still persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition. Before that time, in Spain, some Jews, Muslims and Christians co-existed, even co-worshiped together, for a period. Later, during the 19th century liberalism of both Spain and Portugal, many more Spaniards of Jewish heritage came to Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. . . and, to the Rio Grande Valley.
Both Arabs and Jews are Semitic people. Racists or those calling for mass slaughter have little or no understanding of history or geography—or ethics. Even many Anglos (in my case) grew up in Protestant churches which extolled the teachings of the Old Testament, valuing both Jewish and Palestinian origins. This blending of cultures continues in the Texas lower Rio Grande Valley. We are proud of our achievements, our relative social peace. We encourage areas north of us, in our State, in our Nation, to look, to acquire more understanding, to emulate, if they can, if they will, our advances in humanity.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by UT-Rio Grande Valley Professor Emeritus Dr. Gary Joe Mounce. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Dr. Mounce can be reached by email via: gjmounce@gmail.com.
Editor's Note: The main image accompanying the above guest column shows the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, Spain. It begun 786 and was enlarged during the 9th and 10th centuries. It is now administered by the Catholic Church but retains many of the features built by the descendants of the exiled Umayyads — the first Islamic dynasty who had originally ruled from their capital Damascus (in present-day Syria) from 661 until 750.
