Do you consider the Middle-East as part of Asia?

I've been thinking about this one for a while now. I'm half Middle-Eastern, but I've never thought to call myself Asian, (at least not in the sense that Chinese, Koreans, etc, are), but I had someone point out that the Middle-East is not only recognized by the UN as Asia, it's considered "West Asia", too. And of course, there's no "middle-eastern" continent to speak of.

So I suppose my question is this: do you consider Middle-Easterners, and by extension, the Middle East, as Asian, or part of Asia? I think it depends on where you are, in the UK they tend to think about Asian as around Iran,so I was curious to see everyone's responses.

I won't deny that sometimes when referring to Asians, I have the Chinese, Japanese and Korean people in mind. But the Middle-East is of course part of Asia, as is Russia too. Perhaps the cultural differences between them as well as the media are responsible for this false assumption.

If I'm thinking location/geography then I refer to the Middle East as Asia. If I'm thinking people, I refer to those from the Middle East as Middle-Eastern, not Asians. Technically, "Asian" is a correct term but mostly everyone calls them Middle-Eastern. Just a term I grew up with and is still commonly used to this day.

You make a good point about Russians, as well on the cultural aspect.

The thing is though, Indians have near to nothing in common with East Asians culturally. In fact, it's insane just how similar Middle Eastern and Indian/Pakistani cultures are, yet they're still (mostly) considered Asian.

I'm from Pakistan and I'm more readily identified with Middle Eastern than Asian or South Asian. And frankly, I use 'Asian' for East Asian countries as well.

The Middle East is apart of Asia in my eyes.

I think once you start going East of Turkey roughly, than you're in Asia.

Agreed - Turkey is the gateway between Asia and Europe. It's just that what is technically is and what people generally assign it to be are two wildly different things.

Geographically yes but culturally no, much like India I think of them as separate culturally.

I tend to use more individual countries of origin or regional references.

He looks Japanese.

He looks Turkish.

He looks like someone from the Middle East.

He looks like someone from Southeast Asia.

But, Asian in general? Nope. I like to narrow things down somewhat as a starting point.

But I rather be identified as "Asian". There's nothing wrong with simply calling someone from "Middle East" "Middle Eastern" but the problem is with Orientalism. To some, Middle East is just some big desert with oil/terrorism.

@ShadowsDemon: Turkey itself doesn't seem sure if it's in Europe or Asia. Seems to be a constant problem over there from my very limited understanding

I do not.

@themanofpears: how come you don't know the difference between "then" and "than"?

kind of, not really. Technically they're part of Asia, but they don't really count. I mean tomatoes are technically a fruit, but we don't eat them like they are, so you wouldn't be wrong to call them a vegetable.

and don't mid-easterners (Arabs? Is that the right nomenclature, dude?) consist primarily of Caucasians/white people?

No.

I mean, there's plenty of fair skinned arabs, but there's also a huge amount of black Arabs and Arabs with Indian ancestry. I'm only half Arab, but I've got almost-black hair and olive skin - almost everyone (falsely) guesses that I'm Turkish or Moroccan - and I'm nowhere to near as dark as some Arabs are.

Of course, Salman Rushdie looks (almost) about Caucasian as they get, despite being Indian.

The way I understand America's ever-changing stance on race (logged this day, this minute) is that if you're non-European you're considered non-white, so that applies to Arabs, too.

Same race, yes. Most people in the Middle East are caucasoid. A lot of people think of them as a different race because skin colour/tone may be different when, in fact, skin tone/colour is the last thing to consider when identifying a race.

Technically it's part of Asia but most people don't call the inhabitants Asian....why? Not sure.

The Middle East is the Middle East. Asia is Asia.

The main reason why there is a delineation between the two (as far as I understand) stems from Middle Eastern people being of either Arab or Aryan (Indo-European) descent and Asians being of Mongoloid descent. Two distinct genetic groups with specific differences.

Which is why the "Middle East" ends in Pakistan and "Asia" starts in India. The Hindu Kush mountains being the less-political genetic border.

I was about to mention that in my post but dunno why I didn't.

Generally speaking, racial divisions have always been the concern of the West. For the countries influenced by Islam, such divisions have always been superficial. Maybe at some point they started mattering for us but in reality, we still identify people with their religions. It's not uncommon to hear people speak of white people as 'Christian'. While that maybe factually wrong, it's still a lot better than stereotyping people based on their colors.

No one considers the middle east or even India Asia.

But yeah I guess they technically are.

But the Continents are wrong anyways.

There is only 4 not 7.

AfroEuAsian, America, Australia, Antarctica.

Yeah, which is why I just identify as Asian when I'm online - it's easier that way. Saying Arab or Middle-Eastern doesn't exactly bring up the best thoughts to mind. Plus, I'd rather be an anime character than a camel rider. ;)

@LJS9502_basic:

Are Canadians/Mexicans North Americans?

Yes but what does that have to do with anything?

Geographically, most of the Middle East (except for Egypt) is part of Asia. That's not debatable.

More-or-less true about the UK. In the UK, the word Asian usually refers to brown Southern Asians, especially people with origins in the Indian subcontinent (e.g. Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis).

Indians and Pakistanis are the same race, and were the same country until the 20th century. There is no genetic divide between India and Pakistan. And the majority of India's population are "Indo-Aryan".

Like the OP said, that depends where you live. In the UK, most folks use the word Asian to refer almost exclusively to brown Southern Asians.

Yep. I'm Aussie, and down here "Asian" almost always means South-East Asia, like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. When you look at the geography, you begin to understand why.

I've even heard Aussie Indians apply the term "Asian" to other people, but not themselves.

It depends where most of the Asian migrants come from. If most of them come from East Asia (like North America) or Southeast Asia (like Australia), then that's what the word "Asian" will mean. If most of them come from South Asia (like the UK), then that's what the word "Asian" will mean. For a long time, the UK census even excluded East Asians from the "Asian" category.

Lol ... please .... some Indonesian or Malaysian moslem readily identified themself as Middle Eastern too ....

Why do so many Pakistanis desperately want to be Arab?

Stop trying to be like Arabs

Many Pakistanis identify as "Middle Eastern" to distinguish themselves from Indians, because of bad blood between Indians and Pakistanis.

That article is talking about culture, not race. The Sultan is opposing the Arabization of Malay culture.

I wouldn't care in the slightest if, in the future, Pakistan is considered, geographically not just politically, a part of the Middle East. For the life of me I cannot even understand the obsession with geographical borders or race. Sounds like something only the West obsesses over. Sure there are Arabs too proud of their lineage but if you come here, literally no one gives a f**k as long as you don't call them Christian or Jew or Atheist or any non-Islamic thing.

Also, Arabs, for the most part, suck.

@k--m--k: It was a simple mistake, I'm afraid I can't be perfect all the time.

Parts of the Middle East are in Asia I guess...

Yes. Though calling it Middle East has to do with it being the part of the world that is between Europe and what you generally consider Asia. Likely due to the slight difference in culture and how the ethnic apperance can look both similar to European and Asian ethnicities. But the Middle eastern nations themselves are part of Asia if you divide the world up into it's continents.

Technically, Europe isn't even a continent, but a subcontinent of Eurasia, just like the Indian subcontinent.

Yeah, the term "Middle-Eastern" is a Western one, absolutely.

Everything except for Egypt west of Sinai, the European side of Istanbul and maybe Cyprus.