so when the assingment asks me about listing characterism of orientalism it refers to who are the arabs and muslims as you describe the following.Arabs are loosely defined as anyone who speaks Arabic or is descended from an Arabic-speaking family. Most (but not all) Arabs follow the religion of Islam.

Question

Muslims are the people who follow the religion of Islam. Arabs are an ethnic group.

Orientalism:
http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Orientalism.html
Be sure you read the definitions here.

There are many countries and cultures in the Orient, but Arabs and Muslims are not prominent among them. References to the Orient usually include Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, etc. -- that is, countries and cultures from about India eastward to the Pacific Ocean. This is a huge generalization, though, and generalizations are fairly inaccurate.

This is why I suggested yesterday that you choose ONE of the Oriental countries/cultures to concentrate on and write about how people in that one culture might react to Muslims and Arabs. I still think this assignment includes terms that are much too broad to produce anything more than surface-level ideas -- that is, no depth!

=)