In schools, documentaries, activism, and social movements, most discussions of colonialism focus on European empires—their expansion, forced conversions, and exploitation of Indigenous peoples around the world.
This focus is justified: the impact of European conquest shaped today’s world dramatically. But it also creates a partial view of history.

There was another large imperial expansion that transformed cultures, languages, and identities across continents: the Arab Muslim conquests. By contrast, Jews do not proselytize. Jews are indigenous to Israel. Ryan Bellerose, a Canadian Metis, has given many lectures explaining how Jews are Indigenous to Israel.

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, armies from the Arabian Peninsula expanded outward with remarkable speed. Within a century, they controlled vast regions:

North Africa

The Levant

Mesopotamia

Persia

Much of the Indian Subcontinent

This wasn’t simply religious. It also reshaped identity and culture.
Local languages were replaced or marginalized. Indigenous groups were absorbed into the emerging Arab political and cultural framework. Over time, many populations—such as in North Africa—became culturally Arab even though their roots were Amazigh, Nubian, Coptic, or other ancient peoples.

In the Levant, this historical process is often forgotten. Today, there is a strong belief that “Arab identity” is Indigenous everywhere it is found, rather than recognizing that Arab culture spread outward from the Arabian........

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