Favourite Country?

[Gustaf]

Wait a second...If Sweden's major left wing party were anti-EU you guys wouldn't be in. The Far Left in Scandinavia is anti-EU if I recall correctly...Greens too, possibly...but you're the expert...

Well, that's a good point. The SAP were aginst the EU until the early 90s when they shocked everyone bu turning around suddenly and applying for membership. It wasn't sanctioned by the grass roots at all, but Swedes are used to shutting up and folow their leaders, so in the referendum the SAP-leader after an extremely frantic campaign, and with support from the opposotion, all newspapers, corporations, trade unions, farmer's organizations and about 1 billion SEK in campaign money won a narrow victory, 52-47 bringing Sweden in. The no-side lead constantly upto 2 weeks before the referendum, and reclaimed it immediately afterwards.

Today, only the greens and socialists are aginst of the major parties.

[Brambila]

Malta sure seems a strange place...Christian Arabs...go figure...

They arn't Arabs. Though the language is similar to Arabicm, the Maltese people are mutts. Their oldest ancestry comes from Phoenecia, and the Phoenecians were not Arabs. The Maltese today are decendents of the Phoenecians/Carthaginians, with some Italian, Spanish, Arab, Greek, and Norman/English influence.

 

[Lewis Trondheim the Amazing Bouncing Ferret]

As everybody is of highly mixed origin if you go back this far, I'd advocate going by the language they speak, at least if they've been doing it for centuries.
Maltese is no more different from Arabic as the different Arabic dialects are from each other, it's just written different.
And the descendants of the Phoenicians back home in Phoenicia are considered Arabs these days, too...

[dunn]

As everybody is of highly mixed origin if you go back this far, I'd advocate going by the language they speak, at least if they've been doing it for centuries.
Maltese is no more different from Arabic as the different Arabic dialects are from each other, it's just written different.
And the descendants of the Phoenicians back home in Phoenicia are considered Arabs these days, too...

true
Lewis check our forum. I need your opinion on something

[YoMartin]

Malta- Abortion is illegal! Yay!  

Divorce too...

[Brambila]

As everybody is of highly mixed origin if you go back this far, I'd advocate going by the language they speak, at least if they've been doing it for centuries.
Maltese is no more different from Arabic as the different Arabic dialects are from each other, it's just written different.
And the descendants of the Phoenicians back home in Phoenicia are considered Arabs these days, too...

Maltese isn't Arabic though. It's certainly similar, but not the same. And no, the Phoenicians are not Arabs. They are very different. You might as well consider Israelis Arabs as well. There are four different types of semites in the group- northern (Aramaeans), southern (Arabs), eastern (Babylonians and assyrians), and western (Caananites... modern day Jews and Maltese (Phoenecian)) semites. The Phoenecians are related to the Jews more than to the Arabs- in fact, many of them intermarried.

[Lewis Trondheim the Amazing Bouncing Ferret]

The Libanese are the descendants of the Phoenicians. They are usually considered Arabs these days. So are the Egyptians, mostly descended from the people who lived there back when the Pharaohs ruled, and still looking more like Berbers than like Arabs. So are the Iraqis, who aren't all descended from the people who lived in the Southern part of Arabia 2000 years ago either. Etc Etc.

[dunn]

As everybody is of highly mixed origin if you go back this far, I'd advocate going by the language they speak, at least if they've been doing it for centuries.
Maltese is no more different from Arabic as the different Arabic dialects are from each other, it's just written different.
And the descendants of the Phoenicians back home in Phoenicia are considered Arabs these days, too...

Maltese isn't Arabic though. It's certainly similar, but not the same. And no, the Phoenicians are not Arabs. They are very different. You might as well consider Israelis Arabs as well. There are four different types of semites in the group- northern (Aramaeans), southern (Arabs), eastern (Babylonians and assyrians), and western (Caananites... modern day Jews and Maltese (Phoenecian)) semites. The Phoenecians are related to the Jews more than to the Arabs- in fact, many of them intermarried.

Caananites vanished 4000 years ago

[Brambila]

The Libanese are the descendants of the Phoenicians. They are usually considered Arabs these days. So are the Egyptians, mostly descended from the people who lived there back when the Pharaohs ruled, and still looking more like Berbers than like Arabs. So are the Iraqis, who aren't all descended from the people who lived in the Southern part of Arabia 2000 years ago either. Etc Etc.

95% of the Lebanese  population is Arab. They arn't decendents of the Phoenecians. The Phoenecians disappeared from Phoenecia when the Greeks conquered the area, and they fled to Carthage and Malta, and were known as the Carthaginians. When the Romans sacked Carthage in the Third Punic War, the Carthaginians pretty much died out. Some of them stayed in Carthage, many of them went to Malta. The ones left in Carthage were completely wiped out during the Vandal occupation of North Africa.

Now Egyptians today are not all Egyptians (Copts). THey are also mixed with Arabs and Berbers. The Copt population is a minority now at 6% of the population.

[Demented Voter]

Brambrilla... read a book

[Brambila]

Currently reading "One Flew Over The Coocoo's nest"... why?

[Lewis Trondheim the Amazing Bouncing Ferret]

Currently reading "One Flew Over The Coocoo's nest"... why?

Good book.
Better one than the one you got those misguided notions out from.

[Brambila]

Oh you've done it now...

Lebanon- Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1% according to the World Factbook.

"Maltese (descendants of ancient Carthaginians and Phoenicians, with strong elements of Italian and other Mediterranean stock)"

Malta has a very high population density. Its population is ethnically diverse, a mixture of Arab, Sicilian, Norman, Spanish, Italian, and British. English and Maltese, a Semitic dialect, are the official languages, although Italian is also widely spoken. Roman Catholicism is the religion of nearly all the people.

Ethnicity: Maltese (of Italian, British, and Phoenician origin) 96% ; British 2%

About 95% of Lebanese are Arabs; Armenians are the principal minority. Arabic is the official language; French, English, and Armenian are also spoken.

[Demented Voter]

"Arab" usually means "Native speaker of Arabic". Like "Turkish" really...

[Brambila]

So... the Assyrians are Arab because they speak Arabic? Come on... it has a lot more to do with just being able to speak Arabic. I speak English, does that make me a Brit? If I speak latin, does that make me a Roman? Are the 15% of Ethiopians who speak Arabic, Arab? Are the many Somalis who speak Arabic, Arabs? Further, there are many Arabs who DON'T speak Arabic.

The answer is no. The Maltese are not Arabs. They are Semites, yes, but not Arabs. THey are Maltese. THey are their own people, their own culture, their own ethnicity.

The Arabs are people from Arabia who conquered North Africa (including Egypt), Spain, Malta, Sicily, southern Italy, Sardinia, Palestine, Phoenecia, Mesopotamia, and parts of Persia. They are SOUTHERN semites. Maltese are WESTERN semites, closer related to JEWS than Arabs. And Maltese is NOT Arabic. They don't even have the same alphabet as Arabs do. Calling Maltese Arabic is like calling Spanish, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Portuguese Arabic.