Talk:Mafia (disambiguation)

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[edit] Term "Mafia"

It used to refer to the Sicilian mob, until the international media began using it to refer to all criminal organization in Italy, as well as Italian immigrant based-criminal organizations in North America and Australia. Today it's often used to refer to any criminal organization in the world, such as the "Russian mafia", "Chinese mafia", "Albanian mafia", etc. I argue that it's more accurate to refer to these organizations as "mobs", as "Mafia" is the Sicilian mob. Someone has already redirected the page 'Irish Mafia' to 'Irish mob'. I'd suggest others do the same thing for the other alleged "mafia" groups, but I'm not well versed enough to do so. I do know, however, that it's less accurate to use terminology such as "Albanian Mafia", "Dixie Mafia", "Pashtun Mafia", and "Russian Mafia" when "Mafia" (a Sicilian word) refers to the Sicilian mob; terminology such as "Albanian mob", "Dixie mob", "Pashtun mob", and "Russian mob" is more precise.