There is a huge sports event taking place in Doha these days. It is called “The 17th Arabian Gulf Cup.” The name of the event would not have attracted my attention had I not been closely following the latest Iranian uproar over the use of the term "Arabian Gulf" in National Geographic [see related] rather than their preferred Persian Gulf.
I wonder how Iranians will feel about the name of this regional, heavily-marketed event held in Doha. The press is all over this event with their headlines using ‘Arabian Gulf’ popping up all over the globe. I guess this is a smart way for the Arabs to market their side of the story. Arshad are you there?
I disagree. You can refer to Qatar as an Arab Persian Gulf country, if you must specify that they are indeed Arabs. In fact people in the media either do that or use “Arab Gulf state”. BTW, if this is really a dilemma, why this way of dealing with it didn’t arise before the rise of pan-Arabism? People somehow had better geographical knowledge prior to 1960s? Besides, to use “Arabian Gulf” in that context is wrong. If they really aim to work in that framework, they have to use “Arabic Gulf” state. And it’s not a “great secret conspiracy,” it’s pretty much out in open. How more obvious can it get when you officially ban using Persian Gulf in your country and use “Arabian Gulf” in English in your everyday official and governmental releases?
Maybe its not another great secret conspirecy against the Persians, perhaps all it is, is that newspapers when refering to a gulf country that is Arab e.g. Qatar, prefer to describe it as being in the Arabian Gulf so as not to confuse readers In Europe or North America who are unlikely to know the georgraphy of the area.
I mean if they did refer to Qatar or Kuwait as being situated in the Persian Gulf, than that would probably lead most casual readers to link these countries with Iran, and therefore giving rise to that other great disaster of our times: the creation of a link between Perians and Gulf Arabs in Western minds, which you have refered to with horror previously.
So either way, i think unless if your dealing with experts on the region, its a no-win situation.
Arash, as the backend operator of this site I had a choice to either let urls go active when typed directly or to allow html in the comment posts. I decided to allow html in hopes that comments would be punched up a bit. There are limits, but most standard tags can be used (bold, ital, centering, bullets). Images are not permitted. Tables will work but not effectively. So you’ll have to code in those urls I’m afraid; target tag is not necessary because it is disabled as well. I’ll get a list up sometime soon of the usable html. Until then do your best to persevere.
BTW, What are the allowed html codes here? I’ve realized I need to create the hyperlinks manually.