I missed the memo...why all the draft/conscription threads?

[Xithras]

68. Eh, not really.

San/Stan is Persian in origin, is only used in areas that were historically part of Persia, and doesn't really carry any significance beyond it's basic meaning as a place identifier. Khoristan/Khorasan are names used for places in Iran. Both names literally translate to "Land in the East" or "Place to the East" in Persian. Persians, and Indian Muslims, also tend to refer to northern India as "Hindustan" and have for thousands of years. It simply means, "Land of the Hindus"...and Hindus aren't Muslim. It's simply a way to refer to a place, and doesn't have any religious or ethnic connotation. In the parts of the Muslim world that don't speak languages derived from Persian, it doesn't have any meaning at all. In the Arabic speaking Muslim world, the word for place is "makaan", and "stan/san" is essentially a meaningless foreign word.

My guess is that the people complaining about it didn't understand what it actually meant. And, for what it's worth, the proper Persian form would be something along the lines of "raigistan", which would translate to "Land of Sand".