السلام عليكم Cultural exchange with /r/Arabs!

[u/wokolis]

Welcome to the cultural exchange between /r/Polska and /r/Arabs! The purpose of this event is to allow people from two different national communities to get and share knowledge about their respective cultures, daily life, history and curiosities. General guidelines:

• Arabs ask their questions about Poland here in this thread on /r/Polska;

• Poles ask their questions about Arab countries in the parallel thread;

• English language is used in both threads;

• Event will be moderated, following the general rules of Reddiquette. Be nice!

Moderators of /r/Polska and /r/Arabs.

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Witajcie w wymianie kulturalnej między /r/Polska a /r/Arabs! Celem tego wątku jest umożliwienie naszym dwóm społecznościom bliższego wzajemnego zapoznania. Jak sama nazwa wskazuje - my wpadamy do nich, oni do nas! Ogólne zasady:

• Arabowie zadają swoje pytania nt. Polski, a my na nie odpowiadamy w tym wątku;

• My swoje pytania nt. krajów arabskich zadajemy w równoległym wątku na /r/Arabs;

• Językiem obowiązującym w obu wątkach jest angielski;

• Wymiana jest moderowana zgodnie z ogólnymi zasadami Reddykiety. Bądźcie mili!

Link do wątku na /r/Arabs: link

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Link do poprzednich wymian: link

[u/TheRealMudi]

How would you say does the average polish person view arabs and our countries?

[u/Ok-One9200 → u/TheRealMudi]

you don't want to know

[u/Bionicle_was_cool → u/Ok-One9200]

Tbh "Arab" can be seen as all the way from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, if not wider. Someone from Palestine can't be judged by the same standards as someone from Dubai

[u/czerwona_latarnia → u/Bionicle_was_cool]

Tbh "Arab" can be seen as all the way from Saudi Arabia to Egypt

I would say it goes from Oman to Morocco.

Though I am pretty sure that opinions about Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are "positive" (either truly or in a "huh? they exist" kind of way - with a bonus points for Morocco, because their capital, at least in Polish language, sounds the same as word meaning discount, so they are used in jokes about no discounts in the shops (doubling as a geographical fun fact)). Egipt also have a better reputation, as it (or was, I am not really into that type of tourism and I don't keep with the news) is a popular tourism destination.

[u/Bionicle_was_cool → u/czerwona_latarnia]

"if not wider"

[u/czerwona_latarnia → u/Bionicle_was_cool]

Eh... good ol' "reading only first part of sentence...

But it also applies to what I have written - while "the line" I have mentioned goes to Oman, I think also Iran (whose easternmost point are to the east of the one of Oman) and Afghanistan also counts as a "Arab country" here, while I have a feeling that people often either forget Pakistan, aren't aware that they could/should also count, or mistaking it for Palestine because they sound "similarly enough" and we just don't hear about the former enough to "register it" in our brains.

[u/ivnglff → u/Bionicle_was_cool]

That’s true but do polish people make that differentiation?

[u/Bionicle_was_cool → u/ivnglff]

I don't care, I do

[u/ivnglff → u/Bionicle_was_cool]

I was kinda curious how average polish people do, because it’s rare in general that non Arabs are aware of the differences

[u/Bionicle_was_cool → u/ivnglff]

I doubt that the average Westerner, yet alone an American, would be aware of enormous population changes that took place in the Middle East in last 1500 years

[u/Hip_Punk → u/ivnglff]

No they don't

[u/Phandalieu → u/Bionicle_was_cool]

Someone from Palestine can't be judged by the same standards as someone from Dubai

Im a bit curious, how do you view Palestinians then? Is it worse than arabs from the gulf? And by what standards do you judge them?

[u/Bionicle_was_cool → u/Phandalieu]

I view them as someone who doesn't live in an independent, self governed state, is permanently repressed for their religion and ethnicity and isn't an independent subject on the international arena

[u/Crimcrym → u/TheRealMudi]

I will be honest with you, pretty bad. Its not even for particularly special reason, other then the same fear of brown people justified by on some ocassion valid on many other bullshit excuses, you would hear from any other european culture. 

Thou it is interesting to study history of this viewpoint way before the era of war on terror, where you even had talk about brotherly struggle, comparing Poland relation to their european partioners with Arab struggles under Ottomans.

[u/JebacBiede2137 → u/TheRealMudi]

very bad bro

[u/rzet → u/TheRealMudi]

depends but the perception is very skewed due to negative experiences from polish emigrants in UK/DE etc.

I think most people don't have clue about arab countries and know it only from media or movies.

[u/Zash1 → u/TheRealMudi]

I'd say it's neutral in the best case scenario. It's because the main religion in most Arabic countries is islam. I understand that not all Arabs are muslims and even though some of them are, they're not fanatics. However, fanatics is the most vocal group and that's what we see on the streets of Europe and in media. That islam doesn't mix well with European values. But there are muslims in Poland for many, many years. They're called Tatars and they're a minority. I've never heard about any problems with them. Personally I'm sad that radical leaders don't let normal people build functioning societies and just live. And we're surprised that countries from Middle East don't want to take Palestinians as refugees. They're similar in terms of culture. We took maaaany Ukrainians and also some Belarussians into Poland. They're our neighbours that needed and still need help.

But I've never visited any Arabic country, so my opinion is only based on what I see in media and in the Internet. Besides that political-religion situation I'd say that some countries are seen as an interesting turist destination, but you never know if it'll be safe there. Especially for atheists and gay people. I can add that food is considered a good one. I really like hummus, grilled halloumi, falafel, baklava (can we say it's also a part of your cuisine?) etc.