A common misunderstanding is the idea of so-called "European" features in Middle Eastern people/Semitic people and for that matter Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan peoples of West Asia and South Asia (Pakistan mainly here) are some kind of imaginary "European influence" while this is not correct.
It is the other way around. Most Europeans are descendents of Middle Eastern Neolithic peoples native to the Arab world, Turkey (Anatolia). The other large wave were the Indo-European nomadic migration from what is modern-day Southern Russia/Northern Caucasus/Central Asia. Not Europe in other words too.
Also the gene for light skin/blue/green eyes is a genetic mutation that originated in the Middle East, not Europe.
Studies have suggested that the two genes most associated with lighter skin colour in modern Europeans originated in the Middle East and the Caucasus about 22,000 to 28,000 years ago, and were present in Anatolia by 9000 years ago, where their carriers became associated with the Neolithic Revolution and the spread of agriculture.
en.wikipedia.org
Answer (1 of 6): That is very hard to answer. Various people have contributed to the dark skin found in the Middle East. That includes an ancient people called the Elamites who were in the Iraq/Iran area and contributed to Persians becoming darker. There was, of course, the slave trade in which s...
www.quora.com
Light skin in Europeans stems from ONE 10,000-year-old ancestor who lived between India and the Middle East, claims study
Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine made the finding after looking at DNA differences in the A111T mutation, found in virtually all European ancestry.
www.dailymail.co.uk
So let us end this ignorance once and for all.
Which is why you to this day can find green eyed and red/ginger Bedouin in the middle of Arabia and Kalash people in northern Pakistan in places where there was never any European migrations or presence.
Similarly with the myth of Levantine Arabs (vast, vast majority of them have dark eyes and dark hair) that don't have such features are some kind of remnants of Europeans. Nonsense. Those are ancient local features.
Which also explains why many famous Islamic personalities from the early days of Islam (Arabs/Arabians from modern-day KSA/Arabia) were described as pale/fair-skinned and even Prophet Muhammad (saws) was described as a person with ginger/reddish beard.
Anyway this is all irrelevant, I consider olive skin people to be the best looking by far, but just some historical/DNA/genetic facts here as I continue to see such misguided/false claims online about this topic.
I as a Muslim support this myself. I want Christianity, as a fellow Abrahamic religion with much commonalities with Islam (core tenants are very similar) as well as Judaism, to not die out among its followers but to regain their position in the societies. I think that this could create a better understanding between Muslims and the average European (people of God tend to have more in common than the opposite in particular in this day and age). Even the likes of Jordan Peterson and most of his followers have realized this.
Anyway my theory is that this lack of identity/connection with the past/lack of religion, is the main cause for the rootlessness and the spread of depression/anxiety/lack of purpose in the West and all the cultural filth that the West/USA is exporting to the rest of the world.
For instance, sadly, the average young Westerner can name some useless "social media influencer" in their sleep but they would struggle to mention the recent Noble Prize winners in say physics or chemistry.
Not only a Western problem BTW. Common in Pakistan too.
BTW Folnikas, are you familiar with Crete? If so, any areas of Crete that you could recommend? Preferably the more authentic (Cretan experience) the better and the less tourists the better. So naturally I am thinking about the inland (villages there) and in terms of coastline some more remote vilages/small towns in the south of Crete.
