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Learning Arabic?

Reader comment on item: The Arabist and Islamist Baggage of Arabic Language Instruction

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Sep 2, 2017 at 10:00

Dr Pipes

The Arabic language is unique in the sense that it has the Qur'an a book that most Arabic speaking Muslims have no clue about what it says in Arabic Oh 3rd century Classical Arabic? It is a language that no one speaks not back then and not now

As for spoken and written modern Arabic Niloofar Haeri in her outstanding book: "Sacred Language Ordinary People Dilemmas of Culture and politics in Egypt" She studied Arabic in the US and then went to Egypt for field work and she felt secure that she would be able to communicate with Egyptians and will be able to read their literary sources in Arabic Her big surprise is she could not understand what Egyptians were saying in Arabic and she could not communicate with them either and this is a woman who earned a graduate degree in Arabic in the US

The point is students can learn Arabic in the US but this is not the language spoken by Arabic speakers It is also surprising to most non Arabic speakers when they realize that an Egyptian would not understand what a Moroccan would be saying in Arabic (not unlike Aramaic when it was the dominant language in the Middle East)

The only way to learn Arabic is a learn a specific dialect (Egyptian for sure is the most important) and learn it not in the US but in let us say Egypt

As for link between learning Arabic and "indoctrination" this would have been a reason not to learn Russian in the 1940,s and 1950's because the student would become a communist sympathizer or even worse a communist

And remember that most Muslims don't speak Arabic and still they are rabid anti-Semites and anti-West

I'm in favor of learning any language as long as students spend some time learning the language where it is spoken

Here is a link to Ms Haeri's book

https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Language-Ordinary-People-Dilemmas/dp/0312238975

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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Reader comments (11) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
1Learning Arabic? [322 words]dhimmi no moreSep 2, 2017 10:00240664
1Just political indoctrination, or are they violating Church-State separation? [73 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
PezDispenserAug 27, 2017 16:39240614
Can Arabic culture and language be separated from Islam after 661? [176 words]John HansenSep 17, 2017 20:00240614
Pick the easier and more effective path? [35 words]PezDispenserSep 24, 2017 08:13240614
Arabic drives anti-modern thinking, certainly anti-liberal thinking [307 words]blertMay 18, 2015 00:22223402
Quranic Arabic Not Popular among Gulf Students.... [219 words]Franklin SApr 16, 2015 13:10222900
Learning Arabic But One Step [131 words]DaveApr 12, 2015 16:27222824
Do some christians open the door to Islam in public schools? [88 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
PezDispenserOct 8, 2013 02:53210320
Teaching of Arabic [79 words]gatobrancoApr 22, 2015 03:34210320
Teaching Arabic [62 words]dhimmi no moreOct 4, 2013 07:17210228
Rich Arab Muslims feed the U-parasite system [301 words]SvetlanatchkahJan 4, 2009 02:30146812

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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