It turns out I’m more interested in soccer than I realized. First it was just the Iraqi national team, and then the Palestinian team, and now I’ve watched the big World Cup qualifying match between the US and Mexico.
And what a game!
Anyhow, I went into it knowing nothing about either team and quickly noticed, [...]
I’ve blogged about this before. In the United States and Britain, it’s generally considered extremely cute to dress animals in human clothes. On the other hand, in parts of the middle east, it’s considered a grave insult.
Here’s a recent case.
Apparently the movie I Love You Man includes a little dog named Anwar Sadat, [...]
TBogg has a blurb quoting some moron who thinks the supreme being of Islam of someone other than God.
Said moron wrote:
Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if the Vice President of the United States used the name of Islam’s supreme being as a curse word? They rioted all over the Muslim world when [...]
Kathleen Parker, whose name means “pure,” wrote an op-ed this week in the Washington Post. It kind of had something to do with the events in Iran, but not that much. Mostly it’s bad stereotypes about how ‘they’ oppress ‘their women’ more than we do. Really, there’s very little substance to her article, it kind [...]
This colorful fellow was recently voted Israel’s national bird.
According to Wikpedia, his flying pattern is like a butterfly’s. I’d like to see that.
In the Qur’an, the hoopoe draws King Solomon’s attention to the existence of the kingdom of Sheba, where a much-loved and powerful queen* rules a wealthy kingdom. Alas, she and her subjects [...]
Here’s an interesting thing. Take two Arab monarchs (one’s dead, but that doesn’t matter for our purposes). You have the late King Hasan II of Morocco and Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar.
King Hasan was the second Moroccan king of that name. What with II being unpronounceable, in speaking we call him [...]
Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns has a short article in the Washington Post about McCain/Palin supporters’ treatment of the name Hussein.
Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama.
Never mind that this evokes — and [...]
Names are fascinating. In America, our names are far removed from whatever they originally meant. That takes some of the fun out of it. Usually, when you’re learning a new language and choosing a name for yourself in that language, you base your choice on what the name means.
Arabic names are like English names in [...]
Taking a look at how Arabs are portrayed in the media. With occasional posts about cute animals, soccer, and foreign language translation.
