Arab American and Middle Eastern and North African American Heritage Month

National Arab American and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) American Heritage Month celebrates the culture, traditions, contributions, and history of the more than 3.5 million Arab Americans and MENA Americans in the United States. Arab Americans have ancestry from the world’s 22 Arab nations (Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Yemen).  MENA Americans may also have ancestry in these nations, as well as Iran, Israel, and Turkey. Arab is not a race; in fact, ‘Arab’ is a cultural term which describes people who speak Arabic as their mother tongue.  In 2005, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) opened its doors in Dearborn, Michigan, becoming the first and only cultural institution in the United States that documents, preserves, and presents the history, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans.