Terminology: ISIS vs. ISIL–Everything You Always Wanted to Know and Much, Much More

The esteemed Dr. Justice has an excellent post about the term ISIS vs. the term ISIL–two different translations for the same name of the organization in Iraq.

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Click this messy-looking link to read to your heart’s content: http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/06/isil-vs-isis.html

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This is an issue because ignoramuses keep staying stupid stuff, as ignoramuses will do. Here’s overpaid bobblehead Chuck Todd: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chuck-todd-knows-why-obama-prefers-isil-to-isis/

Fun-Times Friday: Fake Ex-Muslim Speaks Fake Arabic

A friend told me about this guy, Ergun Caner, today, and I couldn’t wait to look him up and find out what he’s about. Here’s a youtube video of him giving an earnest speech to a gullible Christian Islamophobe audience, with plenty of fake Arabic.

If you don’t know Arabic, this may not be funny to you, but maybe it is!

Send Me Movie & Book Suggestions

Back at the end of 2006 I started this blog partly because I had recently learned of the existence of blogs and partly because I was reading a book in which the author did a hatchet job on Muslim Arabs, and I wanted to talk about that.

 

Well, it’s not stylish to spout off bogeyman nonsense about Arabs and Muslims anymore, so I don’t stumble across good stuff to blog about very often. It has become mainstream to point out racism and bigotry, which is good! It just doesn’t leave me with much material to blog about.

 

So please send me tips about novels and comics and tv shows and movies that I could investigate. Just comment on this thread. Thanks!

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Judge Rules Arabic Flashcards Too Dangerous to Fly

You may remember a case from several years ago where a student of Arabic was detained by the TSA because he had Arabic flash cards. He was studying Arabic. Flash cards can actually be useful in studying a language.

Arabic is the fifth-most-commonly-spoken language on the planet Earth. It is the official language of 27 nations. Most importantly, it is language, not a weapon. If flashcards are dangerous, they are equally dangerous no matter what is written on them. What could a passenger do with Arabic on flashcards that he couldn’t do without the flash cards?

See my previous post, How Arabic is Like Parseltongue. https://snarla.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/how-arabic-is-like-parseltongue/

Here’s the recent news story at Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/25/federal-judge-rules-that-tsa-fbi-can-detain-and-arrest-you-for-carrying-arabic-flashcards/

Observe the fool-proof logic:

TSA AGENT: Do you know who did 9/11?

GEORGE: Osama bin Laden.

TSA AGENT: Do you know what language he spoke?

GEORGE: Arabic.

TSA AGENT: Do you see why these cards are suspicious?

 

 

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Destroys Part of Ancient Road with her Convoy

http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=538&EditionId=2378&ChannelId=57180

Here’s a story that’s only in the Arabic-language papers. The U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Maura Connelly, visited an ancient historical site near Tyre, and one of the SUVs in her motorcade crushed a small portion of ancient wall. (Or just some wall–the papers I’ve seen so far are not entirely clear). In any case, you can see from the photo that the path is not intended for vehicles.

An English version of the story here: http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=81959&frid=23&seccatid=14&cid=23&fromval=1

On Jihad, Ignorance Stands Still

The Washington Post had an article the other day about an ad campaign in DC to inform the public on what ‘jihad’ actually means.

With a four-week ad buy in the Shaw, Waterfront, Rockville and Dunn Loring Metro stations, organizer Ahmed Rehab, who is also executive director of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says that he is hoping to change the narrative around the word jihad.

“We kind of got tired sitting there watching people tell us what we believe or what we don’t believe.”

The posters feature photos of Muslims sharing their religious struggles, and uses lines like “my jihad is to build bridges through friendship” and “my jihad: modesty is not a weakness.”

Twelve years after 9/11 and the initial bout of screaming American ignorance, the country’s morons are still as ignorant and still as vocal as ever. Some comments from the WaPo:

You can try to give a newer softer meaning to the word “jihad” but it is too late.
For too many non muslims, the word jihad is associated with terrorism.

This is not a newer, softer meaning. This is the meaning.

Painting Jihad in any other way than getting rid of whoever believes differently is like sprinkling sugar on blood or painting lipstick on a pig’s snout.

“Lipstick on a pig” will always remind me of Sarah Palin.

Jihad means islamic holy war and it has no any other meaning.Jihad in german language is Mein Kampf.
Jihad does not mean to build bridge through friendship.
Jihad is war,jihad means killing infidels/non-muslims.
Jihad is an obligation in House of War/Infidel Country(America,Europe)
Jihad ads at metro stations are Lie Propaganda and Deception

Congratulations, you’re exactly wrong.

But I’m happy to say that the really awful comments I saw the other day have largely been addressed by thoughtful, patient people, and there’s real discussion going on in the comments today.

And people can still see the humor:

My jihad is to get laid this weekend

That’s not quite the meaning, but good luck to you, ma’am.

Saudi Gangnam Style

Found here: http://riyadhbureau.com/2012/11/saudi-gangnam-style, at Riyadh Bureau.

Romney Describes Arab Spring as a “Problem”

Mitt Romney on Saturday explicitly sought for the first time to turn the Arab Spring into an issue in the United States presidential race. In an interview with an Israeli newspaper to set up his visit to Israel this weekend, Mr. Romney made several provocative statements distinguishing himself from President Obama.

Mr. Romney discussed the Arab Spring revolts as a problem rather than progress. He asserted against some evidence that the Obama administration had abandoned an agenda of pushing for democratic reform pursued by George W. Bush, and he characterized even the most moderate and Western-friendly Islamists – those in the political parties leading legislatures in Tunisia and Morocco – as political opponents.

An actual Romney Olympics pin

Is Bachmann the Real Government Infiltrator?

Juan Cole had an excellent post the other day. Michele Bachmann has charged Clinton aide Huma Abiden of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood…turns out Bachmann has deeper ties of her own.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/07/is-michelle-bachmann-an-agent-of-the-muslim-brotherhood.html

3. Bachmann is a supporter of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and tried to visit with them.. The Northern Alliance was a coalition of forces fighting the Taliban. It consisted in part of the Jami’at-i Islami, to which many of its prominent members belonged. The Jami’at-i Islami is the Afghanistan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Egyptian missionaries in the 1960s. Another component of the Northern Alliance was the Shiite Hizb-i Vahdat or Unity Party, which was allied with Iran in the 1990s.

So Bachmann is, once again, closely connected with the Muslim Brotherhood via the Afghanistan Northern Alliance.