My Perspective of the "Middle East"

Snippets of memories and information swirl through my head as I think of this area of the world.

My family eating fatoosh and warm pita at La Shish. My two weeks as a waitress at Madison Shish Kabob. A student at my high school who chose to wear the hijab only sometimes, and therefore had difficulty with some of the teachers. Taking Arabic now. Having an Iranian friend, who therefore isn't Arabic, but felt the pressure of Islam and struggled with the Arabic language of the Qur'aan. Visiting the Arab American museum in Dearborn. Reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok.

A geography teacher tossing out the term "Middle East" as leftover from the British Empire, when East Asia was the "Far East," Southwest Asia was the "Middle East," and the region surrounding Turkey was the "Near East." He decided in his class to call this region "north Africa and southwest Asia" to accurately reflect the geography.

I grew up in Metropolitan Detroit, which has a sizeable population from southwest Asia. My high school's ESL classes chose to employ a teacher's aide who spoke presumably Arabic and Chaldean. Many of the Iraqi students I knew then were not Muslim - my impression was that a majority were Catholic, but I really can't be sure. Conversely, one of my best friends growing up was from a Muslim family that had immigrated from Bangladesh. Hence, it didn't shock me to find out that more Muslims live in southeast Asia than in southwest Asia, or to discover that not all people from southwest Asia and north Africa are Muslim, or even Arab.

My hope is that when I have a classroom, my students will also be able to have these diverse experiences - because very little of what I have learned about Arab Americans was taught in class, although I am sure that we covered southwest Asia in geography and history courses, at least in passing. The salient knowledge for me didn't come from a textbook; I understand it because I caught glimpses of that world.