About Arabs Finder

Arabs Finder is a web-first, no-account-required index for Arabic-speaking and Chaldean communities. It launched in Orange County, Southern California, and is expanding county by county, in order of documented demand density. A second region, Michigan — home to the country's largest Chaldean community and the second-largest Middle Eastern-ancestry population of any U.S. metro area — opened as its own chapter, sourced primarily from community chamber-of-commerce and business-directory partners rather than the phased ACS rollout used in California. A third region, Illinois — Cook County has the largest Palestinian-American population of any U.S. county, alongside a longstanding Assyrian/Chaldean community on Chicago's north side — opened next, sourced from Chicago-area bar associations, community business directories, and hospital-system provider directories. A fourth region, the San Francisco Bay Area — San Francisco's Tenderloin has been the heart of Arab San Francisco since the 1960s, and Oakland is home to its own 10,000+ Yemeni-American community — opened next, sourced from independent Arab-American community directories, hospital-system provider directories, and news coverage of named business owners; this region had fewer compliant sources available than the others, so its coverage launched thinner and more restaurant/cafe-weighted. Professionals and businesses in any region can create and manage a listing, post local offers, and connect with community members.

How ownership is identified

Arabs Finder never infers or guesses Arab identity or ownership from a name, photograph, spoken language, cuisine, religion, or location. Surname-based ethnic inference is unreliable, Arabic-speaking does not mean Arab (Assyrian, Turkish, Persian, and Chaldean communities are distinct), most Arab Americans are not Muslim, and most halal food providers are not Arab-owned. Because of this, the "Arab-owned" label on a listing can only ever come from one of two sources: an authenticated claim by the business's own owner, or a public statement the business itself has published and that Arabs Finder can cite. Every other listing — including everything seeded before an owner claims it — is marked "not stated," which is not a negative signal, just an unanswered question.

Ownership and halal status are separate

Halal certification and Arab ownership are stored as entirely independent fields and are never merged, cross-defaulted, or auto-completed from one another. Halal status is religious and supply-chain information; ownership is a separate, self-reported fact.

Where listing data comes from

Arabs Finder does not copy, cache, or store business listings scraped from Google Maps or Yelp — both platforms' terms of service prohibit exactly that. Listings instead come from public-domain sources (such as the IRS's tax-exempt organization filings and OpenStreetMap for mosques, churches, and community institutions), from partner community organizations and chambers of commerce, and from business owners and community members submitting a listing directly. Community-submitted listings never publish automatically — they go to a manual moderation queue first, with ownership set to "not stated" until the business claims and verifies its own listing.

Reviews

When reviews are enabled, they are sorted neutrally by default (by recency or usefulness — never to hide negative reviews), are never staff- or AI-written, and are never blended with star ratings imported from other platforms.

Licensed professional categories

Health, legal, financial, real estate, home services, and auto-repair listings display a standing disclaimer that Arabs Finder does not recommend, refer, or verify professional competence, and shown license numbers should always be checked directly with the relevant state licensing board. Arabs Finder does not charge pay-per-lead, commission-split, or referral fees in the legal or health & medical categories — only flat-rate subscription advertising is offered there.