Arab street

The Arab street (Arabic: الشارع العربي‎, ash-shāriʿ al-ʿarabī) is an expression referring to the spectrum of public opinion in the Arab world, often as opposed or contrasted to the opinions of Arab governments. In some contexts it refers more specifically to the lower socioeconomic strata of Arab society. It is used primarily in the United States and Arab countries.

While it is sometimes assumed, particularly in the United States, to have been borrowed from Arabic political discourse, its evolution has followed a circular course from Arabic to English and then back. Lebanese newspapers began referring to just "the street" during the 1950s; later in the decade reports in The New York Times used the term in English to explain Gamal Abdel Nasser's broad appeal not just in his native Egypt but across the Arab world. Later commentators added the "Arab" and eventually dropped the scare quotes to create the current usage, which became widespread in American media during the First Palestinian Intifada in 1987. Arab media began using it themselves a decade later. However, its usage still differs between the two languages. In the Western English-language media, only Arab popular sentiment is referred to as the "street"; Arabic commentators use the expression in the same sense to refer to not just public opinion in their countries but in the West as well.

Arab Street

Coordinates: 1°18′8.1″N 103°51′29.6″E / 1.302250°N 103.858222°E / 1.302250; 103.858222

Arab Street (Chinese: 阿拉伯街) is the name of a road and neighbourhood in Singapore. There are two explanations behind the name. The first one is that the area was owned by an Arab merchant, Syed Ali bin Mohamed Al Junied and that it was the site of an Arab kampong, hence the name Arab Street. The Chinese referred the street as jiau a koi Javanese, in the view of the Javanese who used to be the majority inhabitants of the area. Spices, textiles, basketry items and songkoks are sold along this row of shophouses with five-foot way at Arab Street. In Tamil, Arab Street is known as pukadai sadkku (flower shops street), because of shops selling homegrown flowers, lime and other goods sold by Javanese women. In 1889, a huge fire occurred.

It is also tied to the preexisting situation at the time of the nation's founding by Sir Stamford Raffles. When Raffles was planning the outline of areas to be allocated for the government, as opposed to commercial and residential use, a community of Bugis seamen and merchants were already near the Sultan's palace. He therefore allocated the area to them, near where their boats were sheltered in the river, bringing their annual cargo to a barter basis. That is how the name Bugis Street came about. The Arabs and other Muslim traders (Chulias) were also allocated to areas near Kampong Glam.