# Pakistanis are closer to Middle Easterners than to South Asians

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pakistanis-are-closer-to-middle-easterners-than-to-south-asians/749450>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 18, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pakistanis-are-closer-to-middle-easterners-than-to-south-asians/749450 "2016-03-18T20:59:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pakistanis-are-closer-to-middle-easterners-than-to-south-asians/749450/21 "2016-03-20T16:32:06Z")

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> [@AK84](#):
>
> I can think of 67000 better things to do than argue with this guy.
> 
> Sorry, you are on your own.😛
> 
> **AK84**. Extremely openly Pakistani

Besides which, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you note how you think Pakistanis are oh so different from Indians, so you wouldn’t be arguing with him too hard anyway, would you?  
🙂

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**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pakistanis-are-closer-to-middle-easterners-than-to-south-asians/749450/22 "2016-03-20T16:49:30Z")

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> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Finally, all of this artificial nationalist separatism seems to me inexcusably dismissive and exclusionary towards Indian Muslims. One out of seven Indians is Muslim. Indian Muslims (mostly) use Urdu in Persian script and (by definition) practice Islam. Saying that Islam and Urdu separate Pakistanis from Indians is tantamount to claiming that Muslim Indians aren’t “real” Indians.

I don’t often see Indians go on about how different we are from Pakistanis (or how different they are from us), but your statement is somewhat rich in irony. Artificial nationalist separatism on the part of many (at the time) Indian Muslims is what gave birth to the separate nation of Pakistan (and to this day motivates calls for Kashmiri independence). I would like for someone to call that inexcusably dismissive and exclusionary towards Indian Hindus.

And while I’m not defending the OP in any other way, I should note that the only thing common between his caricature of Pakistanis and Indian Muslims would be the Urdu script, so he isn’t quite as exclusionary as you’re making him out to be.

Where the OP’s rambling touches upon an uncomfortable truth is that Pakistan has consciously attempted to [adopt](http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/7663/arabization-of-pakistan-bringing-the-desert-home/)a [more Arabic](http://www.dawn.com/news/1019594) culture to distance itself from its Indian roots.

> [@](#):
>
> Eminent historian Dr Mubarak Ali explains the predicament in the words:
> 
> “Since its inception Pakistan has faced the monumental task of formulating its national identity separate from India. Partitioned from the ancient civilization of India, Pakistan has struggled to construct its own culture; a culture not just different and unique from India, but one appreciable by the rest of the world. …The tragedy of 1971 [when Bangladesh separated] brought a shock to the people and also a heavy blow to the ideology of Pakistan… More or less convinced of their Islamic heritage and identity, Pakistan’s government and intelligentsia consciously attempted to Islamize the country.”
> 
> History itself has been the cardinal victim since antiquity in the hands of plunderers who deem it their foremost target for their ulterior motives. That’s what happened here. History, taught in public schools, starts from the arrival of Muslim Arabs and ends at carving a Muslim state out of Hindu India. Everything else has been rendered smokescreen.

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pakistanis-are-closer-to-middle-easterners-than-to-south-asians/749450/23 "2016-03-20T17:27:24Z")

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> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> You’re not kidding (word-for-word):
> 
> [Sam’s Alfresco Heaven/](http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?226836-Pakistanis-are-closer-to-Middle-Easterners-than-Indians)
> 
> [city-data](http://www.city-data.com/forum/asia/2548649-pakistanis-closer-middle-easterners-than-south.html)
> 
> [onehallyu](http://onehallyu.com/topic/300386-pakistanis-are-closer-to-middle-easterners-than-south-asians/)

This goes beyond “promoting an agenda.”

From the [Registration agreement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=650726):

> [@](#):
>
> The board is not intended to furnish you with a forum for promoting your personal agenda. We reserve the right to ask you to limit postings on a particular topic, or to refrain from posting on such topics altogether.

**Civilrighte** , until such time as some other poster decides to make an issue of whether Indians or Pakistanis are or are not too much alike, you will refrain from posting on this topic any more and you will start no ore threads on the topic.

[/Moderating]

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