National Arab American Heritage Month (April 2024): Home

• The Arab world refers to a collection of countries largely located in Northern Africa & Western Asia, where the peoples are mostly ethnically Arab. These countries also have the main spoken language as Arabic.
• The Arab world is also loosely defined by the 22 members of the Arab League, a voluntary international organization recognizing participating members as Arab nations. For instance, the Arab League partially recognizes Palestine as an Arab nation.
• The member countries of the Arab league include Djibouti, Mauritania, Kuwait, and Tunisia. These nations entail almost half a billion ethnically Arab peoples.
• Egypt's city of Cairo is the largest Arab city, at 16,225,000 citizens.
• The second most populous Arab city is Iraq's Baghdad, at almost 8 million citizens.

Timeline - Recognition in the US

2017 - Several states - Illinois, Oregon, Virginia, and Indiana - announce state support to designate April as Arab American Heritage Month.

2019 - Michigan representatives Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell forward a resolution to U.S. Congress to make April National Arab American Heritage Month.

2021 - President Biden, the Department of State, members of Congress, and governors proclaim their support for National Arab American Heritage Month.

2022 - The initial supportive states, Congress, the State Department, and 45 other state governors designate April as National Arab American History Month.