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hayyakumallah | 15 February, 2006 04:38
Does terror have a language? According to the US government, Arabic and other languages like Farsi, Urdu and Pashto are strategic languages whose learning is an essential component of its war on terror. Millions of dollars are made available to schools and colleges in order to offer Arabic language classes to students. An often circulated reason for this spending is that there are thousands of security tapes in need of translation.
In the US, there are more than 8 million citizens who are speakers of these terror languages. The vast majority of this community love their country and work tirelessly for its prosperity. They made it their home and in it they are raising their children. The designation of their beloved languages, that are inseparable from their culture and traditions, as terror languages is unfair. Moreover, and at a time when the line between legal and illegal surveillance is blurred, the prospect of additional erosion of civil liberties among the members of this community is likely to increase, as a result of all this spending.
The problem with this attack on the Arabic language is that it extends beyond this country’s boundaries. It adds to the atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust that already exists between Muslims and the west. While some deemed it appropriate to grant the Arabic language this unfair designation, Muslims on the other hand, believe that the Arabic language is the language spoken in Heaven. Furthermore, it is the language of the Holy Quran and that of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), hence, the language of the Traditions. These cultural issues are helpful in understanding the complexity of this matter.
Other problems with the viability of this approach have to do with the fact that Arabic, today, is spoken in so many different dialects throughout the world. This makes the task of mastering even the conversation part of the language very difficult. Another complicating factor is that the spoken Arabic is often mixed with other local and foreign languages in the course of a normal conversation.
How do those who are involved in a major operational conspiracy communicate among themselves? Undoubtedly, the answer is: with great care! And definately not in the language that one might learn anywhere outside a terror cell.
A better proposal would be to encourage knowledge and specialization in Muslim and Arab affairs, including languages, for the noble purposes of more effective communication and the building of strong cultural and economic bridges between the two peoples.
This post refers to an editorial in the February 13, 2006 issue of USA Today.
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