Who Are the Arabs?

Notorious "war correspondent"/journalist Michael Yon got a headache asking this question:

Well, most people that have studied the background of the Middle East a little bit have an idea about the difference between Arabs, Persians, Muslims, and such, but some quick research can also clear it up.  Now, if you, the reader are not certain of the distinctions, it's understandable, but if you are, please understand, we haven't covered this before, because we didn't want to insult your intelligence.

Arab n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Arabia.  2. Any of a Semetic people originally from Arabia but later widely scattered throughout the Near East, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula.  3. An of a nomadic people living in North African and Near Eastern desert regions. 4. Any of a breed of swift, intelligent, graceful horses native to Arabia.  The American Heritage Dictionary

In other words, Arabs are the non-Jewish descendents of Abraham, once known as Saracens (without Sarah), or the descendents of Ishmael.  The name of this ethnicity comes from their origins in the Arabian Peninsula (Greek Arap), but recognizes their migrations into North Africa (the non-ethnic-African Africans like Northern Egyptians & Tunisians).

The Yemenis are clearly Arabs, as they are on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, whereas Egyptians are continently Africans and many are ethnic Arabs.  The Pakistanis are religiously Muslims and primarily ethnic Asians.  The Iranians are ethnic Aryans (hence the new name Iran)/Persians and Muslims, though some Arabs inhabit the old Persia.

An Arab doesn't necessarily speak Arabic or practice Islam.  There are Iraqi (Arab) Christians and the language derives from Aramic which is still spoken by some Lebanese (Arab) Christians.

The Arab breed of horse is beautiful, but I don't think anyone would confuse them for their geographic origins.

American readers would not necessarily know this, but I would expect that a Middle East "expert" who chastises others to "research" to be able to understand it.  Yon, take an aspirin and buy a dictionary.  It is the key to some of the most basic forms of research on things an expert or writer should know.  There are online versions of dictionaries, but the true purists of English will almost always prefer the book version.

The Tarnak Saga:
1)  The Bridge Over the River Tarnak Looking at Fact and Fiction of the incident
2)  From Tarnak Bridge to Bruhaha Looking at Yon's obsession for Menard
3)  The Tarnak Scalp That Wasn't  Looking at Yon's claims of scalping Menard
4)  The Yon Conspiracy Over Tarnak: Looking at Yon's Conspiracy Theory Origins
5)  Overview of the Michael Yon Saga

Deviant Behavior
1)  Yon OPSEC Violations: It can't be more blatant but some are in disbelief
2)  Yon Publicizes Video of American Soldier Losing Legs.
3) Banned By Yon!
4) Yon's Attack on PTSD as insanity
5) The Banning of an Angel