Bringing Arabic to U.S./ Canadian High Schools.

Why would Americans or Canadians want to learn Arabic? Why do they need to learn Arabic? And the important question, why do “growing numbers of organizations desire to introduce an Arabic curriculum” into the high school curriculum?

We must make Arabic as prevalent in the United States as Spanish. Or at least as commonplace as French, and German.
The Arabic Language Institute Foundation (ALIF), a Los Angeles-based organization is committed to introducing the teaching of the Arabic language into public high schools.

(1)

The world of languages is roughly divided by the numbers of speakers, those that use a language as a first language acquired in the family unit. Most would not be surprised that with more than 1.2 billion people mostly in mainland China, Cantonese is be spoken by the greatest number of people, followed by Spanish, varieties of which are spoken mostly in Latin America, and of course Spain, and Arabic, which is spoken in the following countries:

Mauretania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan have Arabic as their primary official language, although not all of the citizens of these countries are speakers of Arabic. Arabic is also an official language of Israel, Djibouti, and Somalia. There are also Arabic-speaking populations in Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

One of the official languages of Malta, Maltese, is an interesting case. Even though it is related to the Algerian and Tunisian varieties of Arabic, and thus classified as a Semitic language, it is the only known form of Arabic that is written in the Latin script. Moreover, due to its linguistic isolation from the Arab world during the heyday of European colonization, it has been heavily influenced by Italian and English.

(2)

After 9/11, more and more people became interested in learning Arabic, but Arabic has been pushed for a long time as we can see in this teaser promoting students to learn Arabic at Indiana University:

Arabic is widely spoken on two continents, from North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. It is the official language of twenty two countries with more than 220 million inhabitants, placing it among the top ten languages of the world in number of speakers. The numerical, political, cultural, and religious status of the language was formally recognized by the United Nations in 1973 when Arabic was made the sixth official language of that body (the others are Chinese, English, Russian, French, and Spanish).

Most people know that Arabic is the written and spoken language of the 220 million people of the Arab world, but few realize that the Arabic script is used by approximately one-seventh of the world's population. Its alphabet, with some modification, is used to write non-Semitic languages as well, such as Persian, Urdu and Kurdish (i.e. The Arabic Zaa' with the addition of two dots, becomes the sound 'Zhe' as in Zhivago; the Arabic Faa' with the addition of two dots, makes the 'V' sound and so on—sounds that do not exist in Arabic, but do in Kurdish, Persian and Urdu). The Turkish language employed Arabic script until the 1920's. Several African and Asian languages, such as Swahili and the Malaysian tongue, have also used the Arabic script at some point. The Arabic script is still used today in Afghanistan, sections of China, and Muslim areas of the Soviet Union.

(3)

Not all Muslims “speak” Arabic. For example, Iranians speak Farsi, and there are a variety of languages spoken in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country; Bahasa is the main language. In the Philippines, a country with hundreds of languages has adopted English as language of unity. Muslim separatists are fighting to change that here and everywhere else Muslims are on the move.

Many Muslims were called to Da’wa centuries ago. Strangely enough, most of the world’s Muslim don’t speak or read Arabic, including Muslims in both Europe and in North America. Prayers are memorized and repeated with a rough understanding of what they mean as, according to Islamic tradition and the insistence of Muslim scholars, only prayers said in Arabic are authentic and pleasing to Allah. Imams and other scholars have job security because the majority of Muslims have no idea what is in the Koran, the sira, the ahadiths, or what they mean. They rely on others to explain these documents and traditions. Of course after generations, people can rely on word of mouth, passing cultural information from father to son, mother to daughter, but the majority of people have no way of checking for themselves what is in those documents on which they base their entire existence. But America is different from the Muslim world. Most are literate and education is the door to the America mind. Americans won’t accept ideas that they can’t check for themselves. Americans coming to Islam through Da’wa would eventually want to learn Arabic.

The United States came up short after 9/11 because few in service are qualified Arabic speakers and fewer yet understand the mind of the Muslim and little knowledge of the many cultures that have adopted Arabic as a first language as Islam was spread across the world through conquest, trade, and Da’wa, the call to Islam. Understanding the mind the Bedouin and the Arab is important because the predominate strain of Arab culture governs all Muslim life, whether in Indonesia, Tunisia, Iran, France, Britain, Canada, and, even the United States, all countries with distinctly different base cultures.

But why should non-Muslims North Americans learn Arabic? Canadians should learn Islam because they have a larger number of Muslims than does the United States for they have had a more liberal asylum policy that is rapidly changing their culture. For self-defense, Canadians need to know about the people with whom they are now struggling.

The United States isn’t yet to the point of struggle with Muslims, although there are some that are irritated with their Muslim neighbors. Americans should become knowledgeable BEFORE a struggle becomes necessary.

There are other reasons that don’t involve culture not ideology. Some Americans should learn Arabic in order to protect their country, but is Arabic necessary for commercial reasons as many Muslims allege? Maybe, but most of the world has made a point of learning English as a second language, and in the business world, English is the Lingua Franca of modern times. Business is transacted all day, every day in English all over the world in the worlds of high and small finance. Deep in the heart of even in the world’s most populous country, China, language schools are pumping out English speakers to engage in trade and wage war on the economic front. The combined GDP of the Muslim world is less than that of Spain! (4) North Americans learning Arabic for commercial reasons wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Even the world’s pilots are required to speak and read English as English is the language of the transportation world. Thus the charge that Arabic or any other language is needed to facilitate trade and commerce is ludicrous. The idea that English, especially American English, is NOW use used for the world’s important processes grates on many that want to make a change in the dominate world culture, for that of the American to another. Islamists want to make Muslim culture the most important, the one in charge of the world. Language use, you see, is reflection of who or what is important and in charge.

Yes, some Americans and Canadians need to know Arabic and be immersed in Arabic culture in order to be of service to America as the first line of defense against an aggressive culture. But that language and cultural acquisition should be carefully done for the purpose of teaching Arabic to Americans and Canadians isn’t for trade nor for the cultural understanding. No, the reason for teaching Arabic to this population is for Da’wa, the eventual calling of non-Muslims to Islam, the first step taken toward the eventual take over of the United States. As Daniel Pipes has pointed out in his web log, the ALIF has a sincere, but far reaching reason for wanting to reach the minds of young North American adults:

Arabic is the language of the Qur'an. In order to convey the message of Qur'an in North America and Europe, we have to first deliver its language. Knowledge of Arabic can then help the Western countries recover from the present moral decay. Shootings of the likes in Columbine High School, and San Diego schools are the symptoms and the signs (Ayah) from Allah. High School students in North America deserve better than the metal detectors to protect them. The whole system of education needs a moral shake-up. The Arabic Language Institute Foundation (ALIF), a Los Angeles-based organization is committed to this goal.

(Daniel Pipes.com)

According to Pipes, “Even innocuous-looking groups like ALIF (a project partially sponsored, wouldn’t you know it, by the Council on American-Islamic Relations) has an intent to transform the United States into a majority Muslim Country.

Just how many Muslims are there in the United States? There are just a few million that can claim a Muslim culture as the culture practiced in the home and Arabic as the language spoken in the home. American Islamic groups claim that there are as many as six million, but a more realistic figure would be less than two million. (5)

If Arabic is taught in public schools and an aggressive Da’wa is pursued, those numbers could soar! Already Da’wa has entered the prison system, converting many angry and resentful people to Islam. (6) Da’wa is a potent force on U.S. college campuses where you will find Muslim student centers (7) as well as professors that encourage Islam through their teaching practices, the contents of their lectures, class discussion, and the focus of assignments, dictating the point of view that students MUST take in their research and product in order to “pass the class.” (8)

Da’wa is innocuously being pushed in the public schools as well. All vestiges of Christianity are being purged through efforts of the ACLU, but Muslim parents and Imams are beginning to fill the “holiday and cultural void” for America’s school children.(9) As well as promotion if Islam through “new and better textbooks and teaching materials that show Islam in a positive light,” by teachers trained in sensitivity and Muslim information workshops, parents (10) are encouraged to contact the school to “offer suggestions” on how to insinuate Islam into the curriculum, and the fill assignments with Muslim themes, as well as teaching children that the “pagan origins” of their Christian Christmas and Easter celebrations. (11)

Bringing Arabic language teaching to schools isn’t an exercise in rote repetition and grammar studies. Just like any language acquisition classes in the U.S., Arabic and Muslim cultures will be studied and emulated through cultural fairs and the “mock” adoption of cultural characteristics through role-playing. Immersion and student exchange programs have been staples of foreign language acquisition for decades. As Muslim culture is a Janus, one side culture, and the other side Islam, Arabic language acquisition can’t possibly be transmitted without exposing students to religious instruction in Islam. (13)

Da’wa is again being cloaked in an innocuous garb. Notice that the subjects are becoming younger and younger. Muslim philosophy and thought for university students, Arabic language and culture for high school students, and if you look carefully at grammar school textbooks and teaching materials you will find that little children are already being prepped for the next step in the Islamization of the United States and Canada. (14)

The United States can not be conquered by a confronting military force. The population of the United States must be convinced peacefully and tranquilly that their base culture is corrupt and evil and requiring change. Leftists and Muslims have contrived a campaign to convince us that this is true and have provided a remedy, a draught that is already being dosed in spoonfuls while the practitioner applies the old time method of bleeding the patient to remove the “evil spirits” that are believed to be inhabiting the body. Soon, if measures are not taken to reverse the process, America will be “bled dry” of its cultural base and familiar liberties and freedoms. The young will have no memory of the other America and the elderly will pass away, taking the memories with them as children and college students will hear about America and Western thought as reference to the evil past before Islam reverted the world to the true religion and worship of Allah.

END NOTES:

1. “Bring Arabic to U.S./Canadian Schools” http://www.hadi.org/ALIF/proposal/arabic-to-highschools.htm

2. “Where is Arabic Spoken?” http://linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/arabic/arbcspks.html

3. “Where is Arabic Spoken?” http://www.indiana.edu/~college/foreignlanguage/arabic/arabicSpoken.shtml

4. “Does Learning Arabic Prevent Moral Decay?” DanielPipes.org

5. Google Search “How Many Muslims Live in the United States?” http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=424748

6. “Education of Muslims in Kentucky Prisons.” http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_1_50/education_of_muslims_in_kentucky.htm

“Muslims Win Legal Battles in Prisons” http://atheism.about.com/b/a/096751.htm

“Call to Prayer. Prisoners Converting to Orthodox Islam in Growing Numbers.” http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/race/2001/pray_razaq.shtml

7. “Convey Islam on College Campuses.” http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/BICNews/Sabeel/sabeel5.htm

“Islamic Radicals on Campus.” http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7395

8. “Hate 101.” http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Printable.asp?ID=16060


9. “Who Is Censoring Whom in Schools?” http://snyders.ws/alan/writing/censor.htm

10. “How to Get Religious Accommodation in the Public School System: A Six-Step Guide.” http://www.soundvision.com/Info/education/pubschool/pub.guide.asp

“How to Work With Public School Teachers.” http://www.soundvision.com/Info/education/pubschool/edu.nonmuslimteacher.asp

“Getting Involved in the Public School System is a Religious Obligation!” http://www.soundvision.com/Info/education/pubschool/pub.involv.asp


11. “Holiday Myths: Documentary Review.” http://www.soundvision.com/info/news/reviews/holidayc.asp
(Check also the bottom links)

12. “The Portrayal of Islam in American Textbooks.” http://www.educationreview.homestead.com/Islam.html

13. Seelye, H. Ned. “The Seven Goals of Cultural Instruction.” Teaching Culture. Strategies for Intercultural Communication.National Textbook Company, 1985.

14. “Textbooks: ‘Where the Curriculum Meets the Child’ – An Exclusive Interview With Gilbert T. Sewall.” http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15596