Free Republic

SNIPPET: "An al Qaeda leader wanted by the US for a string of deadly attacks has been named the new leader of terror group's network in East Africa. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of several al Qaeda leaders charged with carrying out the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was appointed the leader of al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa. Fazul was "inaugurated" during an open ceremony in the southern city of Kismayo, according to a translation received by The Long War Journal of an article posted Waaga Cusub, a website operated by the Hawiye clan,...

Arabic classes coming to three more Chicago schools Mayor Daley announces grant, says he doesn't see Fort Hood shooting stoking anti-Muslim sentiment November 9, 2009 By FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter The Chicago public schools will expand its Arabic-language program to three more high schools, thanks to a three-year, $888,000 federal grant announced this morning. Mayor Daley accepted the grant at Durkin Park Elementary School, 8445 S. Kolin, as he rejected suggestions that the Fort Hood, Texas, massacre could lead to an outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment. “I don’t think so,” Daley said. “Every day, in society, someone’s being killed ....

SNIPPET: "Arabic language schools in Nasr City are doing well and many Salafists come to Egypt in to learn the language of the Koran. Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?" SNIPPET: "In addition to language lessons, they usually follow courses in Islamic law offered by teachers ranging from the renowned Al-Azhar University to clandestine imams without permits. "Religious fanatics want to be taken seriously," says Walid al-Gohari, founder and director of the Al-Fajr institute,...

A federal education grant will soon be used to introduce Arabic language and culture into Missoula high schools. The five-year, $764,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education comes to Missoula schools with the help of University of Montana.

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Aug. 12, 2009 – U.S. Soldiers, airmen and civilians here are taking part in a special opportunity to learn Arabic. Army 2nd Lt. Noel Cronin converts an Arabic word to its feminine form during the first Introduction to Arabic class offered by the Basra Education Center, Basra, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2009. U.S. Army photo by 1st Sgt. Larry Mears  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. On the first day of the first Introduction to Arabic class offered here through the Basra Education Center, their teacher, an Army interpreter known as Ms. Lucy, wasted no time with...

Recently I have posted articles ranging from showing that American Muslims are not assimilating and forming their own communities, to Muslims openly calling for jihad just blocks away from Ground Zero. As long as they go unopposed they are going to continue to move forward with their agenda of an Islamic USA. Now two prominent American Muslims are close to finalizing their plan to open an Islamic College right here in America. The school will be lead by two Islamic scholars, the first being Sheik Hamza Yusuf, who in the past had made this statement.

SNIPPET: "The CIA is attempting to recruit more spies by advertising on the internet, radio and television, and by holding meetings with American Muslims to make up a severe shortage of Arabic speakers.... Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, will meet Muslim groups in cities such as Detroit to spearhead personally the new drive to recruit Arabic speakers. He recently lamented the fact that only 13 per cent of CIA officers speak a foreign language, and just 22 per cent come from minorities. "In order to accomplish our vital intelligence mission we want to market our employment opportunities to speakers...

SNIPPET: "Many citizens get messages from al-Qassam organization threatening to kidnap, kill Israeli officials. 'This is jihad, victory or martyrdom,' email says" SNIPPET: ""More than 1330 of Islamist fighters had entered Palestine," said a threatening email received by many Israelis on Thursday night. The message warned that several prominent people would be abducted and killed. "This is jihad, victory or martyrdom," it concluded."  SNIPPET: "The message was sent in English, Arabic and Hebrew from an email account registered on Google's Gmail service, which enables any person to open an account for free without requiring identification." SNIPPET: "Surfers reported of...

Arabic language classes are still few and far between, despite cash incentives from the federal government.   A new class at Passaic County’s vocational high school in Wayne may be the only public school class in the state, while classes in Mandarin Chinese have mushroomed in recent years and are now offered in more than a dozen North Jersey districts.  Both are considered "critical need" languages by the federal government, which set aside $114 million to kick-start new classes under the 2006 National Security Language Initiative.Across the nation, 90 percent of the grants have funded Chinese classes, federal education officials said,...

The continued decline of French civilization was evidenced when former President Jacques Chirac had to be rushed to a hospital after being mauled by his own dog. The Maltese poodle, named Sumo, has a history of frenzied fits and “vicious, unprovoked attacks” despite receiving what Chirac called “the finest cheese and wine available in our country. He eats better than most of the peasants in France. Yet, he still chews my shoes and urinates on the furniture. It’s like he’s saying he doesn’t respect my authority.” At the time of the mauling, Chirac was lying on the floor in the...

The French government is strongly advocating the teaching of Arabic language and civilization in French schools. Not surprising, considering the number of Arabs and Muslims in France, and the unctuous deference with which they are treated by officials, beginning notably with Nicolas Sarkozy, who cannot praise enough the splendor of Arabic contributions to the world. ************************* In his message to the participants, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Arabic the "language of the future, of science and of modernity," and expressed the hope that "more French people share in the language that expresses great civilizational and spiritual values." "We must invest...

NEW YORK - The Al Jazeera Network plans to announce on Thursday that it has signed a deal to run its news on Worldfocus, a syndicated nightly news program produced in New York and distributed throughout the United States. The deal would help the international news network, one of the top services in the Arabic-speaking world, broaden its reach in the United States, where it so far has been available to only a limited audience. Worldfocus, hosted by former NBC News correspondent Martin Savidge, is produced by New York City public broadcaster WLIW and syndicated to a number of Public...

Israel PR Reaches Gaza Arabs Through Facebook, YouTube By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem --- January 9, 2009...... As in every war, the battle for hearts and minds is a critical one. Public opinion has a direct effect with lives on the ground. In the current defensive war in which Israel has been forced to defend herself from Hamas terrorists, rather than focusing on conventional print and broadcast media, both official and non official Israel spokespeople are using Web 2.0 social networking applications such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Hamas has been attacking Israel almost on a daily basis...

Their lack of Arabic skills limits non-Egyptian Egyptologists in their ability to gain insights into Egyptian culture. The overwhelming reliance on European languages in the field limits the contributions that Egyptian Egyptologists are able to make to the field. The effects of these factors are discussed and suggestions are made as to how the situation can be ameliorated... Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology have been historically dominated by the use of three languages: English, French and German. Any scholar who wishes to make a serious career in the field must develop at least a reading knowledge of these three languages, in...

More evil and violence from the ‘religion’ of ‘piece’. No wonder muslim kids grow up so full of hate and venom, the very people charged with protecting them are beating them down in the name of allah. Gee what a shocker there… Muslim children are being beaten and abused regularly by teachers at some British madrassas - Islamic evening classes - an investigation by The Times has found. Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was “picked up...

t was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went ... Doctor killed in mysterious elevator shaft fall It was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went. But as San Francisco police combed over the evidence Tuesday, investigators said this is what appears to have happened: Dr. Daniel J. Kliman, an Alameda physician and one...

Indian officials suspect the Islamic terrorists in Mumbai may have British links after examining BlackBerry phones they used to monitor news reports. Key figures in the terrorist gang were equipped with the devices that meant they were able to monitor British news, even when the authorities turned off power. A senior officer in the country's elite Black Cat commando unit told the Telegraph, the gunmen were able to trawl the internet for information once they lost cable television feeds to the two luxury hotels and office block. The men looked beyond the instant updates of the Indian media to find...

FORT HUACHUCA — The first class of a three-year pilot Arabic immersion language program at the Intelligence Center graduated Wednesday, and early Thursday morning the soldier students headed for a Middle Eastern country for an additional month-long in-depth immersion where no English is to be spoken. “You are trailblazers,” Col. Jasey Briley told the soldiers at the graduation ceremony. Arabic language skills will not only be important on the battlefield, but in other roles the Army may find itself in such as peacekeeping operations, the chief of staff for the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca told the soldiers. Noting that...

DALLAS – They sang praises to a terrorist group, had telephone access to its leadership and deceived the public about their true ambitions, a federal prosecutor said Monday about the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Five former HLF officials are on trial for illegally routing millions of dollars in donations to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities, known as zakat committees, that prosecutors say are controlled by the terrorist group. In his closing argument, federal prosecutor Barry Jonas pointed to what he called the "highlights of the highlights" of the government's six-week case. It includes hundreds...

The French government is strongly advocating the teaching of Arabic language and civilization in French schools. Not surprising, considering the number of Arabs and Muslims in France, and the unctuous deference with which they are treated by officials, beginning notably with Nicolas Sarkozy, who cannot praise enough the splendor of Arabic contributions to the world. The French National Assembly was the scene of a meeting earlier this month of the first Conference on the Teaching of Arabic Language and Culture, attended by a variety of interested parties. There was much wearisome blather about the need for "dialogue." In his message...

He's a gentle man, lean and soft-spoken, careful to begin his lecture with an explanation of principles like the right to counsel. The passion in Frank Lindh builds only when he describes the details of what happened to his son, John Walker Lindh, the bearded young man who was tagged as the American Taliban. In the waning days of George Bush's administration, the senior Lindh is asking the president to commute the rest of his son's 20-year sentence, now seven years along. It's almost certainly a hopeless quest. Bush is not a man prone to second-guess himself. ... In retrospect,...

Slavery still stalks the American consciousness, its wounds yet festering in many hearts. If Barack Obama were to set his mind to it, he could heal much of the damage this peculiar institution wrought on our national soul. This great and tragic error that must be given justice. Obama is the best person in the world who can recognize, remember and honor the deaths of 125 million and the enslavement of tens of millions of people. His unique qualifications can be found in his names. Until he was 20 years old, he went by the first name Barry. Then he...

EXCLUSIVE: AL QAEDA TARGETS LEADING ARAB EVANGELIST OPERATING IN THE U.S. FOR PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO MUSLIMS (Washington, D.C., September 9, 2008) -- You have probably never heard of Father Zakaria Botros.

Is this guy a Muslim? A jihadist? I have no idea, and I am not saying he is. But the possibility cannot be dismissed out of hand when he chants “Allah” and mutters in Arabic while attacking a man he does not know with a hammer. In a sane society, government, media, and law enforcement would be calling upon American Muslim groups to do something about this – to face up to the capacity of Islamic texts and teachings to incite violence, and to institute comprehensive, honest, inspectable programs teaching against jihad violence and Islamic supremacism. But this is hardly...

Alan Colmes just said that Obama speaks fluent arabic when he was grilling Corsi about his Obama book

'''Yahwah''' '''Yahwah''' is God’s personal name based upon the ancient Semitic language. Take note that the letter 7 in Biblical Hebrew was known as waw and pronounced as w, as in Yhwh, “Yahwah.” In Modern Hebrew 7 is known as vav and pronounced as v. The derivation of Yahwah is from the ancient Semitic words HaYah and HaWah. HaYah means “The Life or The Living.” HaWah means “The Beginning or The happening.” This is a partial list of words associated HaWah: Be, is, was, became, happened and appeared. '''Yahwah reveals His name to Moses''' '''Exodus 3:13-15.''' 13 And Moses said...

this with a huge grain of salt from the usual corner: No Quarter. **New Yorker Cover Cartoon NOT a Satire**? It is being reported today that Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has in his possession a tape recording of an interview he once had with Barack Obama that may be very damaging to the latter’s campaign for the presidency. The tape (and the transcript of it) stem from a February 27, 2007 visit Kristof paid to Obama’s senate offices. A column Kristof wrote based upon this interview appeared in the New York Times on March 6, 2007. What...

At Harvard, the star of Arabic A is a girl named Maha. Maha Muhammed Abulaal, to be precise. She's the pouty protagonist in the melodrama that runs throughout "Al-Kitaab," the standard beginning text in Arabic classes at Harvard and other American universities. We are taught to speak our first Arabic sentences by expressing Maha's incurable angst. We learn in Chapter 1 that Maha is desperately lonely. In later chapters, we are told that she hates New York, has no boyfriend and resents her mother. Soon we encounter her equally depressing relatives in Egypt -- such as her first cousin Khalid,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq, July 8, 2008 – Take a platoon of deployed U.S. soldiers and add 100 Iraqi National Police officers. Then mix in a mission to search 400 houses and temper it with just one interpreter. The dynamic challenges speak for themselves. Army Pfc. Joshua Ingraham (center), a 19-year-old rifleman from Bradenton, Fla., prepares to enter a house with Iraqi National Police officers during a clearance mission in eastern Baghdad’s Hay Nassir district, June 20, 2008. Ingraham’s ability to speak Arabic is a great asset when working with Iraqi security forces. He is assigned to Multinational...

Amber Tracy spent the past academic year studying Arabic. But with a full-time job and other classes, she wasn't progressing as quickly as she had wanted. On June 23, she began an intensive Arabic program at Cal State San Bernardino, learning Arabic all day and practicing it in residence halls well into the night. "I think I've learned more in the last week than I did all last semester," Tracy said after finishing a lunch of Arab-style chicken, rice and salad with her tutors and other students. "Being able to focus on Arabic and not think about anything else is...

When I still lived in Cairo, I went to apply for a visa to visit Uzbekistan, and ended up talking to the resident consul about religious culture in Egypt. Something was perplexing the Uzbek diplomat. “The other day,” he told me, “I phoned an official called Mohammad. And I said, ‘Is this Mr Mohammad?’ But the voice at the other end, instead of saying ‘Yes’ or ‘How can I help you’, replied, ‘Insha’allah’!” God willing, I thought, giggling, my name is Youssef Rakha. “It is very strange. There are no insha’allahs about it. How could God will or not will...

While some Americans happily celebrated the 60th birthday of Israel this past 
week, on several California campuses it was the “Nakba” (Arabic for "Catastrophe") that was celebrated instead and American college campuses nationwide also provided the venue for the Israel bashing event by setting up fake “checkpoints” and accosting students for their ID then saying they could not go home to their villages” inside Israel. Meanwhile, as in the past, anti-Israel protesters at UC-Berkeley illegally brandished realistic weapons in order to call attention to “Israeli oppression."

As for the point about Arabic translators needed for Afghanistan, the Obama campaign points to the well-documented presence of foreign fighters there, many of whom do speak Arabic. However, these folks are mostly shooting at NATO troops, not talking to them. No doubt there are a handful of Arabic speakers employed at Bagram and Kandahar and other detention centers to interrogate foreign fighters captured on the battlefield. But I have not seen any reports that there is a shortage of such personnel, or that the need for such translators in Iraq has hamstrung the interrogators in Afghanistan. Foreign fighters captured...

According to the Mount Vernon Gazette, twenty-two soldiers from Fort Belvoir in Fairfax, Virginia just graduated from the nearby Islamic Saudi Academy's "Arabic as a Second Language" program, where they also learned about "Middle Eastern culture and traditions." While this would sound fairly harmless on the surface (and Arabic language instruction is certainly needed in the U.S. military), it turns out this school has Wahhabi skeletons in its closet. This would be the same Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) that came under scrutiny last year over its Saudi-produced textbooks. As reported by the Washington Post at the time: In a report...

For over a year, we have been waging a relentless, nearly solitary battle in apprising the Congress and the American public about a billion dollar boondoggle and scandal: the lack of credible Arabic translators for our national security and intelligence agencies. As a result hundreds have been killed in Iraq from infiltration of our military and civilian intelligence agencies by agents of Islamist terrorists. Our FBI and CIA have been infiltrated by Muslim linguists who have successfully evaded polygraph tests and been able to pass on vital information to terror groups in the Middle East such as Hezbollah. Tens of...

Ten years ago, when Dr. David Sagiv began preparing the Arabic-Hebrew Hebrew-Arabic dictionary he recently completed, he was more optimistic than he is today. At that time, he and his wife, Marcelle, would go every year to Cairo, where he had established contact with some of the most important intellectuals in Egypt. The shelves of his bookcase in Jerusalem are filled with Arabic books, some of which contain dedications from Egyptian authors. For several years, it seemed as though cultural relations between Israel and Egypt were gradually being woven. But in the last few years, since the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke...

Conversion to Islam on road to Damascus spells the end for Aramaic, the native language of Jesus ELIAS Khoury can still remember the days when old people in the mountain village of Malula spoke only Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Back then the village, linked to the capital Damascus, only by a long and bumpy bus ride, was almost entirely Christian, a vestige of an older, more diverse Middle East that existed before the arrival of Islam. Now Khoury, 65, grey-haired and bedridden, admits ruefully that he has largely forgotten the language he spoke with his own mother. "It's disappearing,"...

(IsraelNN.com) Education Ministry officials have decided to keep Arabic in the core curriculum for middle and high school students until further notice. Arabic was removed from the core curriculum earlier in the year as part of an attempt to streamline the curriculum and make it acceptable to the hareidi-religious community. Most hareidi-religious schools have rejected the core curriculum and prefer to operate as private schools with some government funding. However, the Supreme Court recently ruled that the government cannot fund high schools that do not teach the core curriculum, a decision that would leave many hareidi-religious schools facing a budget...

These are photos of inscriptions which are over two of the doorways of the house we recently bought. The question - Are these just artistic decorations or do they actually say something in some language? If you don't know, but work at a university, etc. that has someone who knows middle eastern languages, I would REALLY appreciate you forwarding this to them so we can figure this out.

CAIR Exposed: Part 1 As IAP Offshoot, CAIR Followed Pro-Hamas Agenda From the Start by Steven Emerson IPT News March 24, 2008FEATURE STORY   From the Hamas ties of its founders in 1994 to its solicitous stance toward accused terrorists today, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demonstrated that its actual mission is far removed from the civil rights advocacy it claims to pursue. Still standing as perhaps the clearest evidence of CAIR's insidious role, two key leaders of the group attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia called by Hamas members and supporters to devise a strategy for torpedoing...

While the U.S. has made significant strides since 9/11 in both the reorganization of our intelligence community and in tailoring our technological superiority to meet new needs, the United States is only beginning to address the HUMINT requirement. Perhaps one of the most interesting trends that seeks to address this deficiency is in the rise of Global Intel majors at universities. The University of Denver, Ohio State and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are but a few schools that are tailoring curriculum to facilitate a more productive transition into HUMINT gathering. Interest in this field has been generated as a result of...

LONDON (Reuters) - A lack of Muslim and Arabic-speaking staff at a jail that detains terrorism suspects is creating a security risk because they could not understand what inmates were discussing, a government report revealed on Wednesday. Despite staff working at Long Lartin prison's specialist terrorism unit insisting such culture training was essential, authorities had yet to introduce any sufficient education, a report by the Prisons' chief inspector found. Anne Owers' report said that while managers had "taken steps to raise cultural awareness" - with visits to mosques and funding Arabic lessons - it was a small step "given the...

ORLANDO, FL -- A small Florida company has turned one of the world's most popular high tech gadgets into a tool for American troops that can help save lives. "They speak with their hands -- a lot," US Army Sergeant Darren Williams said, remembering the times he worked to communicate with the local people during his year as a soldier in Iraq. "If you grab something, or if you say, 'Hold it.' Or, 'Pick it up. Pick it up.' You use that a lot, too," the Jacksonville-based Army recruiter said, waving his hands through a series of gestures. For Williams,...

Marine helps bridge gap between Arabic, American cultures Dec. 27, 2007; Submitted on: 12/27/2007 08:56:35 AM ; Story ID#: 2007122785635 By Cpl. Andrew Kalwitz, 2nd Marine Logistics Group KABANI, Iraq (Dec. 19, 2007) – Muqtar Ismail Mohmood Hamad and 1st Lt. Matthew A. Thompson discuss projects that will take place in the near future, such as the installation of a new water treatment plant. Thompson is the executive officer for Battery K, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, and a Presho, S.D., native. SIN ADH DHIBBAN, Iraq (Dec. 20, 2007) – Capt. James H. Brady mingles with an Iraqi soldier. The...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 4, 2007 – When Sgt. Jason Stisser, of Troop O, 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, found out he was coming back to Iraq, he quickly brushed up on his Arabic. That preparation has been benefiting his platoon in its current duties. Nashville, Tenn., native Army Sgt. Jason Stisser, Troop O, 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, provides security along with Iraqi army troops during a clearing operation in Baghdad’s Karkh district. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kap Kim, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Based out of Forward Operating Base Prosperity in central Baghdad, the...

Most Arabic Yahoo groups are about sex Posted By Esra'a (Bahrain) On November 9, 2007 I’m not sure how reliable this is, so I looked a bit further. About a year go, it appears that Cairo was the [2] Sabbah provides a few graphs detailing who’s searching for sex on the internet. Here is who searched for sex by region: Arabic is the 2nd most common language that is used to search for [3] “sexy.” As you can see in that same graph, Iran is at 3 and Egypt is at 4, listed under regions where search on “sexy” was...

DETROIT (AP) - Six Arabic-speaking men have sued American Airlines, saying they were publicly humiliated while being escorted from an aborted flight in San Diego. The six Michigan men filed an ethnic discrimination suit in Detroit federal court. They say airline employees grounded their August 28th flight from San Diego to Chicago and detained them, labeling them as security risks. The men were flying home after training Marines at Camp Pendleton when a passenger alerted guards after hearing them speaking Arabic. The men say they were detained while 100 other passengers got help finding hotel rooms. The airline says it...

Arabic-speaking passengers sue AmericanThe Associated Press DETROIT --Six men of Iraqi descent who were flying home after a stint training Marines sued American Airlines on Thursday, saying employees publicly humiliated them after a passenger expressed concerns about them to security guards. The men, who sued in U.S. District Court in Detroit alleging racial discrimination, say airline employees grounded their Aug. 28 flight from San Diego to Chicago and detained them, believing they were security risks. The men, some of whom are U.S. citizens, were returning to the Detroit area after training Marines at Camp Pendleton in California when another passenger...

Some parents of students enrolled in an Illinois school district are upset that traditional school holidays may be renamed or eliminated. Instead of celebrating Halloween, students would celebrate "fall festival." Instead of Christmas, it would be called a "winter festival." The move came after school officials fielded complaints from a parent who is Arabic. Four elementary schools and one junior high will be affected. The Illinois PTA director is investigating the districts actions.

FRANKFURT, Germany: A 42-year-old rabbi was stabbed in the stomach by another man on a Frankfurt street in what appeared to be a spontaneous attack, police said Saturday. The rabbi underwent surgery after the Friday night attack and appears to be out of danger, police said. The rabbi, whose name was not disclosed, was walking with two other people when they encountered the assailant and two women, a police statement said. The man, whom witnesses described as possibly Arab, spoke to the rabbi — who was wearing a Jewish head-covering — in what sounded like Arabic.