Another interesting little tid-bit, for some reason the Syrians in those churches in Germany, France and Sweden at least are hard to tell apart from the locals, practically every one of them had blue, green or light-brown eyes and blondish or light-brown hair. That’s in fact how I first found out about this, I went into one of the churches and struck up a conversation with people who I thought were local Germans but their accent sounded very different, when they told me they were Syrians (plus a bunch of Iranians and Iraqis who also looked a lot more European than I thought). I’m just curious because I haven’t done much business in the Middle East, and the little I’ve done has been in the Gulf countries, like in Dubai where the Arabs really do look very different and non European. Whereas it seems like the Syrians, Iranians and the Lebanese esp., plus at least a bunch of the Iraqis are constantly saying they’re totally different from the Arabs in the Gulf, seems like they not only look European but consider themselves European, like some European country that got stuck in the Middle East. I admit it was an eye-opener, I don’t understand it but it was interesting to see.
During early conquests, "European blondes" were selectively shipped to the Middle East as slaves and concubines.
And another interesting thing too from talking to them, damn those Iranians hate Arabs, at least the ones from Saudi Arabia and Gulf. I mean with a deep passion, even more than Israelis do. So do the Kurds and Turks (who also look pretty European and a bunch of them were also converting to Christianity in those churches), they were constantly finding a reason to put down the Arabs in the Gulf, same with the Syrians like I said who keep insisting they were totally unlike the Arabs in the Gulf. There are some serious fault-lines in the Middle East, I don’t know much of the history but seems like just about all the other countries can’t stand the Arabs in the Gulf, it’s like they see them as backward uncultured idiots who just happen to have a lot of oil money but no real civilization or manners to go with it.
They are very distinct from the Arabian Peninsula Arabs in Saudi and the Gulf states. As a vibrant trading area (remember the Phoenicians? They're called Lebanese now) for thousands of years and as a part of several empires, Phoenician, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Ottoman it has always been a crossroad of races and cultures. Levantine Arabs, because of their business savvy and education, are the imported middle management and professionals -medicine for example - backbone of the Gulf states. And because its the original heartland of early Christianity and the mass conversions during the Crusades it's also where there has been a significant Arab Christian population.
I remember being hosted, single and in my late twenties, at the home of a Christian customer in Damascus who made sure his marriageable daughter sat beside me at dinner and as we looked through the family album with pictures of her at the beach in a bathing suit. I was being cultivated as ticket the Hell out of Syria and to America for the family. These Arabs more or less invented the real Art of the Deal and I learned a lot doing business with them.
Persians hate Arabs, it both racial and religious.
Arab, from the original Hebrew, means “mixed company” or “mixed people”. Gulf Arabs are a mixture of races including Africa.
Persian are Shiite. Shiites firmly believe in the bloodline of the profit Mohammed. Mohammed’s cousin married his daughter Fatima, Mohammed cousin the fourth caliph was murdered with him son (Mohammed’s grandson) by a Sunni warlord from Syria. In addition, Mohammed’s son-in-law and cousin’s head was later put on display on a wall in...take a guess...DAMASCUS. Hmmm, and Iranians are freelancing in Syria. So...anyway. A Sunni severed the bloodline of the profit and Mohammed’s grandson would never become Caliph. Shiites firmly believe this was a great tragedy, Sunni’s downplay the significance. This is the original source of Shitte vs Sunni strife.
It’s not dirty laundry that Muslims of any variety want aired and that’s why you probably never heard it.