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The FBI, ATF, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force all showed up when a man of foreign decent got out of his car, and started talking about blowing it up. Witnesses say Youssef Bouchlarhem wasn't wearing shoes or a shirt, and was blasting Arabic music from his car. Police say he was screaming in Arabic, and fortunately an officer was able to translate part of what he was saying, leading to his arrest. Police closed down several blocks for 5 hours, Sunday afternoon. Sheriff John Rutherford says they took the incident extremely seriously due to the recent bomb scare in...

The State Department, in an unprecedented move highlighting its desperate need for Arabic speakers, is allowing U.S. diplomats to curtail their current assignments anywhere in the world and begin Arabic language training in September. Foreign Service officers who are interested in learning Arabic or improving existing skills have until the end of July to apply for more than 100 positions in Arabic-speaking countries that will open in the next two years. Asked why the program has been initiated only now -- nearly six years after the September 11, 2001, attacks and more than four years into the Iraq war --...

The Virginia-based al-Hurra satellite television network that is financed by Congress and beams to the Arab world may be subject to an independent review following reports that it has routinely aired broadcasts that include denunciations of Israel or Jews. The station, which reportedly receives $62 million in funding annually (plus an additional $40 million for a station that targets Iraq), was reportedly set up as an alternative to the principal Arab news channel al-Jazeera, which has frequently been attacked by U.S. politicians as sympathetic to Arab militants. But the Associated Press reported Tuesday that al-Hurra has aired programs that have...

Superheroes With a Muslim Message - 99 Islamic Superheroes Find Success on Newsstands Alongside Batman, Superman By REBECCA LEE May 16, 2007 — Watch out, Captain America. Step aside, Superman. There's a new breed of crime fighting superheroes looking to capture the comic book scene, with 99 characters from around the world with one trait in common amid their superpower strengths -- they are rooted in Islam. "Islam is not mentioned directly in these comics, but the back story is very much based on Islamic tradition and culture," said Kuwaiti psychologist Naif al Mutawa, who teamed up with cartoon giant...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mounting pressures from Muslim parents in the region have prompted the Muslim Educational Trust to open the new coeducational Oregon Islamic Academy - the first high school in the Northwest geared to Muslim students. Syed Ahmad was one of those parents. He told Wajdi Said, the trust's executive director, that he moved his family from Texas to Oregon for work and they lived in Tigard to be close to the Muslim Educational Trust's prekindergarten to eighth grade Islamic School. But he told Wajdi that he'd take his family back to Texas to attend an Islamic high...

New York: This city has dozens of small public schools that focus on themes, such as sports careers, the arts, and social justice. Few generate any controversy. Then, someone decided to start an Arabic-themed school. "Jihadi", "public madrassa", and "segregationist" are just a few of the labels tossed at the plan. Conservative websites have seethed against the idea, as have some members of the public. Even concerns about finding space for the school have been coupled with questions about security. All this before the school has enrolled a single student. "It's hard not to believe that this is in some...

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS. A controversial plan to open an Arabic-language middle school on the top floor of a Park Slope elementary school will go ahead, despite the protests of parents and residents, said Community Education Council 13 President Diane Nathaniel at a meeting here last week.

Can someone help please. I can't find a good online Arabic to English translation. I didn't know that Babel fish didn't do Arabic. Anyone I was reading through a thread on another forum I use and a poster posted this to her "Muslim sisters" Authu bilahi min a shaytan a regeemI don't know if it's spelled correctly and the poster wasn't sure if she was writing it correctly. I refuse to get into the discussion they are having, but I'm just curious what she was saying to them but not to the others. An insult to the non-Muslims? She also...

'BBC Arabic Service anti-western' By Tom Leonard in New York Last Updated: 2:17am GMT 17/03/2007 The BBC's Arabic language service operates a separate editorial system to the rest of the corporation that is "anti-Western and anti-democratic", an American academic said yesterday. Frank Stewart, a Jerusalem-based Middle East expert, said that the World Service's Arabic radio service - which is soon to be supplemented by a television version - has been consistently hostile to the US and British governments while treating Arab leaders with kid gloves. Writing in the New York Times, Prof Stewart claimed that the 60-year-old Arabic service was...

Arab Racism, Arabism, Arabization, Islamism - Islamofascism, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, etc. Arab Racism, Arabization, Islamism - Islamofascism, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, etc. On Blacks, Africans * Kurds * Berbers * Israelis * Jews * Afghanis * Iranians, Farsi * Pakistanis * English * Asians * Europeans * Marsh Arabs * Nubians * Al Akhdam * Iraqi Arabs vs Ahwazi Arabs * by "palestinians" (on others) General Arabism Equals Racismhttp://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24912 FrontPageMagazine.com October 13, 2006 ThereÂ’s an expression, "The pot calling the kettle black." It refers to someone claiming a sin in others that is at least as prevalent - if not...

City To Open Arabic Public School In Brooklyn The Department of Education says that it will open a public school next fall dedicated to Arabic language and culture. The Khalil Gibran International Academy is one of 40 new schools that will their debut in the city next September. Education officials say that although half the classes at the school will be taught in Arabic, they want to enroll a diverse student body. The school is set to open in Brooklyn.

DALLAS -- As the only Spanish-speaking staffer in his division, Dallas city employee Norman Herrera takes at least one call a day from a resident en español. The questions range from where to pay a parking ticket to how to get trash pick up on a day other than Thursday. "We get those calls in English all the time. When you get those in Spanish, you want to answer them," said Herrera, a special assistant to the Dallas mayor. "If we can't communicate with them ... I don't think we're doing our job." Demand for bilingual employees like Herrera is...

A journalist working for Arabic TV news channel al-Jazeera has been arrested in Egypt for allegedly fabricating videos of police torturing suspects. Huweida Taha Metwalli was stopped on her way to Qatar and 50 video tapes were found in her luggage, the Egyptian interior ministry said. She is reportedly charged with "tarnishing Egypt's reputation and harming Egyptian national interests". Al-Jazeera said the tapes showed a "documentary reconstruction" by actors.

<p>RICHMOND — The small beige signs bearing black Arabic script have been appearing all over town on buses and at colleges.</p> <p>Are they secret messages from terrorists, one panicked bus rider asked? Should the FBI be contacted? What do they mean?</p> <p>Actual translation: “Paper or plastic?”</p>

ROME — As part of an increasing global effort to communicate the message of the Catholic faith to the Arabic-speaking world, the Rome-based Catholic news agency Zenit is launching a free Arabic edition on the Internet.Since the start of December, Zenit has been posting Arabic-language Vatican and Church stories on the Internet at Vatican Radio’s Arabic site, oecumene.radiovaticana.org/ara/index.asp. Readers can subscribe directly to Zenit’s Arabic news service for free by e-mailing . Zenit is not yet able to post its news articles in Arabic on its own site, but hopes to be able to do that within the next few...

It says something about a teacher, as well as his topic, when 19 teenagers are happy to show up and be reduced to first-graders – dyslexic ones, at that. “How do you write that letter? What animal does it look like?” Mohamed Eddefaa asked during a recent session of the only public-school Arabic class in New Hampshire. “Cat,” several students shouted, relieved after two weeks to remember one of the 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet, a series of beautiful swooping lines that neither look nor sound like anything in English. Eddefaa, a native of Morocco, nods and writes the...

Critical Mention, Inc. to Commercialize as Subscription Service for Business, Government and Media *********************************************** YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY, Sep 14, 2006 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- IBM Under the agreement, IBM Research will provide Critical Mention a multi-year license to its speech-to-text translation solution for Arabic and English sources, with the ability to expand to other languages in the future. "The ever-shifting nature of the market compels business professionals to quickly and easily monitor a wide range of foreign events and world media," said Arthur Ciccolo of IBM Research. "The unique TALES technology, combined with Critical Mention's advanced real-time search and...

A traffic stop in Detroit has led to serious suspicion , police said . Detroit police officers pulled over a vehicle near Atkinson and Second streets on a traffic stop. When officers questioned the driver, the man said he was from West Africa. In the trunk of the vehicle, police found license plates from different states, identifications cards and Arabic literature, Local 4 reported. The man was taken in to custody on a traffic violation. Police will not comment on the items found in the vehicle, but did say they are working with federal authorities.

Pfc. Kenneth Dickerson, a 19-year-old Marine from Clive, Iowa, assigned to the Hawaii-based Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, hands out candy to two girls in Barwanah, Iraq, July 29, 2006. The 19-year-old U.S. Marine from Clive, Iowa, has spent the past four months of his deployment in Iraq teaching himself Arabic, and uses it to help his fellow Marines by serving as a translator during the unitÂ’s daily patrols through Barwanah, Iraq. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Roe F. Seigle U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Kenneth Dickerson Deployed Marine Teaches Himself Arabic By U.S. Marine Sgt. Roe...

VERGAS, Minn. — It's one of the rituals of the summer camp experience — young campers starting each morning with a group song. But here at Al-Waha, it's not the standard "Camptown Ladies" fare. The kids warble not in English, but in a guttural yet soothing Arabic, the language they're learning in a two-week session on the shores of northwestern Minnesota's Leek Lake. As they sing, Al-Waha's dean, Ghazi Abuhakema, translates: "My world is beautiful, and wrongdoing will not happen," Abuhakema whispers. "A villager I am. Our caravan keeps moving forward in a big long procession." It's like much of...

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- From his small balcony, Brother Yohanan Elihay can see the East Jerusalem Palestinian village of Sur Baher and the multilevel apartment buildings of the Jewish Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, where he lives with another brother from his order. It is an apt view for the 80-year-old, who has spent more than half a century in Israel working to bring Israelis and Palestinians together through language -- most recently with The Olive Tree Dictionary, an 8,000-word, 17,000-phrase Arabic-English dictionary published by Minerva. "Language is the key to the heart," said Brother Elihay, who chose to speak in Hebrew. He...

For the first time in history, a book is written to provide information on the Aramaic language of the Qur'an. For over fourtheen centuries, Muslims have been told erroneously that the language of the Qur'an is Arabic. The Eastern Syriac dialect of Aramaic is dominant in the Qur’an, and many chapters are borrowed from the Hebrew Bible, but were misinterpreted by Muslim commentators. Not understanding the Aramaic language of the Qur’an, and not being familiar with the development of its revelations, Muslim commentators rendered erroneous interpretations to the book. Such erroneous interpretations led to the rise of Islamic fundamentalists, like...

(Guilford-WTNH, May 12, 2006 8:00 PM) _ It may be a sign of the times. Guilford High School's course in Arabic got such an overwhelming response they had to turn students away. This language course has many students thinking of a future helping their country. They began the school year learning to pronounce the basic sounds of the Arabic language. "You have um a lot of glottal sounds. Like ian, hein and humzah and haha," says Guilford High senior Michael Weston-Murphy. Now students can read, write and greet one another as many people do in the Middle East. Their instructor...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, MAY 2, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The recent riots related to the publication of anti-Muslim cartoons in Western newspapers were widely viewed as a popular religious reaction to offensive depictions of the prophet Mohammed. But according to one expert on Islam, the riots were incited by governments to manipulate both the West and the Muslim world for political purposes. Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa is a theologian, Middle East scholar and co-contributor to the "Islam and Christianity" DVD series. He spoke with ZENIT about how the cartoon riots are part of radical Islam's attempt to seize control of the Muslim world...

Top Secret and Urgent TO/ The Military Manufacturing Department Undated M/ Information We learned from among our sources working abroad that Western intelligence agencies are working at gathering information on some of the military and scientific targets in the country, and the noted source went on to tell us of maps of the targets which he was assigned in gathering information on them during his visit to the country. We are [sharing] it with you to give an understanding of these concerns and thereby maneuver in changing the location of these targets with a view to seize the opportunity to...

The Hamas terror group, as part of its new role as head of the Palestinian Authority, when presented in a conciliatory light in Western media, denies in Arabic, statements heralded as moderate. Ismail Haniyah of Hamas told CBS on March 16th that he hoped to some day sign a peace agreement with Israel. In his CBS interview, Haniyah said that he was "seeking a peace settlement and stability in this region," "looking forward to peace and tranquility in this region," and "seeking American administration to create this missing peace." According to a subsequent article in Al Hayat Al Jadida –...

Nouri sends along this article on the need for more enrollment in critical language classes.  From the article: Hoping to make a difference in the world (and perhaps sensing the prospect of likely employment), U.S. students are flocking to newly formed Arabic classes on high school and college campuses. Enrolling is the easy part.***********snip************ Here's the real kicker from the article: At the State Department, for instance, only 10 of 34,000 employees are rated fully fluent in Arabic.

American children will now learn Hindi -- and for a good reason. The Bush administration thinks that learning Hindi and a few other foreign languages is a "critical need" for the US's national security and prosperity. President George W. Bush on Thursday unveiled a $ 114 million plan, called the "National Security Language Initiative". Apart from Hindi, the languages being courted are Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Farsi. "This programme is a part of a strategic goal, and that is to protect this country," Bush told a conference of more than 120 US university presidents. A request is to be sent...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2006 – President Bush today kicked off a new national program designed to increase the number of Americans fluent in Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindu, Farsi, and other critical-need languages. "We're going to teach our kids how to speak important languages. We'll welcome teachers here to help teach our kids how to speak languages," Bush said in introducing his National Security Language Initiative at the State Department. Bush addressed university presidents here attending an international educator's conference that's co-sponsored by the State and Education departments. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, and Defense Secretary Donald...

The founder of the nation's first Arabic Christian TV channel says the programming is attracting phone inquiries from curious Muslims. The Southern California-based channel Alkarma, whose name means "the vineyard" in Arabic, premiered Oct. 17. It is the brainchild of Samuel Estefanos, an Egyptian-born businessman. The channel gets 10 to 15 calls a day from Arabic speakers with Muslim surnames who are intrigued that Alkarma would give away a movie known as the "Jesus Film" and other materials. "Some of them call and say they are Muslims and need to know more about Christ," Mr. Estefanos said. "Other people are...

AMMAN, Jordan, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A daughter of a prominent Syrian filmmaker was among those killed in Wednesday's triple bomb attacks in Jordanian hotels, officials said Thursday. Medical and government officials confirmed that Rima Akkad, 33, died of her injuries late Wednesday. Her father, renown international filmmaker Mustafa Akkad, was seriously injured in the neck, but was reported in stable condition. The two were at the Hyatt Hotel in Amman when a bomb ripped through the lobby as two other explosions rocked the nearby Radisson SAS Hotel and the 3-star Days Inn Hotel. Akkad directed the 1977 "The Message"...

The Simpsons might not be the first show you would introduce to the Arab world, with its constant references to things forbidden by the Koran, such as beer and bacon, but Arab Satellite Network MBC has done that."The Simpsons," now called “Al Shamshoon,” features Omar instead of Homer, and Badr substituting for Bart. With 60 percent of the Arab world 20 years old or younger, MBC hopes “Al Shamshoon” will bring in those coveted young viewers. Michel Costandi of MBC TV Network, Inc., says, “I think ‘The Simpsons’ will open new horizons for us to the future." But with a...

Adella Higenbotham Casler thinks a job application she filled out years ago may be the reason she got an invitation to join the Corps. Greensboro, NC -- The Marine Corps is always looking for people to join the ranks of "the few, the proud." But one Greensboro woman found a recent recruiting effort a bit surprising. Apparently the Marine Corps knew the heart of Adella Higenbotham Casler, who says she's more than willing to serve. "If I can do something for my country, no matter the age, if you're physically and mentally able I want to do my part." But...

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Hamlet has become a Muslim prince at the Ottoman court in an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which its Bosnian director says reflects the world after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. In possibly the biggest theater co-production the war-torn Balkans region has seen in some 20 years, Haris Pasovic is seeking to put "Hamlet" into a 21st Century setting. "One of the most important issues of the 21st century is the world's increased understanding of the Muslim issue following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York," Pasovic, himself a Bosnian Muslim, told Reuters...

The head of Canada's Ontario province has rejected attempts to allow Muslims to use Sharia law in family disputes. A report by Ontario's former attorney general Marion Boyd had recommended the use of Islamic law to settle issues such as divorce and child custody. But Premier Dalton McGuinty ruled against the move, saying there should be "one law for all Ontarians". Protests were held against the Sharia law proposal in major Canadian cities, as well as in Paris, London and Vienna. Critics said allowing Islamic tribunals could lead to discrimination against women. 'Common ground' If the recommendation had been accepted,...

In Muslim nations that go to the ballot box, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, extremist political parties get crushed by voters. Those extremists are not able to earn more than a small per cent of the vote. Most people want good government, the electricity to work, the trains to run on time, low crime and so forth. The people are wise, and with a proper outlet to let that wisdom flow to government, superior outcomes prevail. Voters choose secular political parties over religious ones, and moderate parties over extremists. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the two best examples of...

Found this cruising a photo site on the web and uploaded it to tinypic...just wondering.

...Thus when [the American Association for the Advancement of Science] publishes a politically correct history of the relationship between science and Islam... its falsehoods enter credulous and influential minds on every continent, including Antarctica. “Science in the Arab World: Vision of Glories Beyond” by Wasim Maziak in the June 3, 2005, issue of Science, cites as its sole source for Islamic history “the historian James Burke.”...One can easily and quickly verify that Mr. Burke is no historian... To elevate Islam, Maziak even caricatures medieval Christianity. in Science of medieval Christianity: Avicenna “introduced medieval Europe to the principles of logic and...

HADITHA DAM, Iraq (July 27, 2005) -- As the Marines with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment continue their fight in the Global War on Terrorism, most of them think of it as business and not personal. However, for some Marines who are of the Islamic faith, the war in Iraq hits a personal note. Cpl. Mohammed N. Rahman, who is a Sunni Muslim, fights not only to free the people of Iraq from the insurgents grip and to protect his country (America), but also to redeem his beloved religion. “This is a personal offense, not only to me but others...

While the media has obsessed over two high-profile cases in recent months involving improper handling of classified information, communications involving terrorists have been getting translated by people without any security clearances—and there’s been nary a whimper from most of the Washington press corps. There are 119 inmates in the federal prison system with “specific ties” to international Islamic terrorist organizations, and almost all of them are able to communicate with the outside world through phone calls and letters. (Full disclosure: this journalist broke the story on the front page of the Washington Times two weeks ago.) Not only did the...

Opening a new battle with the White House, Senate Democrats on Wednesday abruptly blocked the approval of President Bush's nominee for a top public diplomacy job, charging that the administration had injected partisan politics into the drive to improve the United States' image overseas. The nominee, Dina Powell, the White House personnel director, had been expected to win broad approval to become deputy under secretary of state for public diplomacy, to be the second-in-command to Karen P. Hughes in charge of repairing the United States' reputation, especially in the Muslim world. But in what was to have been a routine...

Arbil, IRAQ -- Most Kurdish students in northern Iraq learn English as a second language these days, alarmingly for a country whose official language remains Arabic and where fear of Kurdish separatism still runs deep. As Kurdish former rebel leaders test the limits of their hard-won influence in the new Iraq, some say that even traditional Muslim prayers must be said in Kurdish and that speaking Arabic is out-dated and out of touch. "Certain extremists would like to say prayers in Kurdish," said Salam Khoshnaw, a professor at Salaheddin University who speaks perfect Arabic. "Others, even more radical, dare to...

Yesterday that recently vanquished cliché, the Arab street, returned to remind us that there are some things that even the most enlightened Westerners don't get about Muslims -- their fanaticism about the Koran. Newsweek, which had only a few months ago been jubilantly celebrating the new People Power rising up in the Middle East, apparently ran an article in which it was alleged that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, in order to annoy the Muslim inmates, had deposited copies of the Koran on or in the toilet bowls of the prison facility. There was even a rumor that a copy of...

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in Iran: The Invisible Revolution. During the U.S. presidential campaign, debate over Iran policy received unprecedented attention. The reasons are multifold. With Iran on the verge of developing both nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile capability, Washington policymakers can no longer ignore the Iranian threat, especially when confidants of Supreme Leader Ali Khomenei lead televised chants of "American will be annihilated," as Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati did last June. American concern over a nuclear Iran is multifold. The danger is not necessarily that Iran would conduct a nuclear first strike, although former president Ali Akbar...

FORT HUACHUCA -The United States must do more to start training linguists at an earlier age because their need is becoming more critical in the troubled world of today, said Pete Shaver, director of the Military Intelligence Foreign Language Center. The need for linguists to help in the intelligence arena cannot be understated, he said. "We can't wait to train a soldier in a language until that person enlists," Shaver said. The nation needs a core of people who have language capabilities beyond English to be tapped when circumstances dictate specific needs, he said. Arabic speakers are needed now. Also...

I should have been an interior decorator because I just adore patterns. Check out these sweet accents: In France, a French court let stand thef conviction of Alain Juppé, Jacques Chirac's loyal sideman, for fraud. But, according to Libération, his sentence was cut in half because the court thought it was unfair for Juppé, a member first-class of the French ruling élite, to have to wait more than a year before returning to the public trough. According to an earlier report in theGuardian, 12 more Chirac cronies may soon be charged with vote-rigging. Juppé resigned as mayor of Bordeaux —...

Rap lyrics about killing cops and raping women get your goat? You ain't heard nothing yet. Check out Dirty Kuffar, the latest hit music video from British rapper Sheikh Terra and his Soul Salah Crew. For those not in the know, "Kuffar" is what Muslims call a non-believer, "Salah" means righteousness or piety in Arabic, "Terra" is rap lingo for "terror," and the name of the group is an intentional rip-off of the name of British rap group "So Solid Crew." The lyrics brag about the attack on the World Trade Center, claim that Bush and Blair will be "thrown...

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 194 October 29, 2004 No.194 Arab and Iranian Media on the U.S. Presidential ElectionBy: *Y. Yehoshua The upcoming U.S. presidential election has been closely reported in the Arab and Muslim world. However, unlike in the previous election, when George W. Bush was the favorite candidate of Arabs and Muslims, there is no clear trend of support for either candidate in the Middle East's media this time. Moreover, most high-ranking Arab officials are not expressing their views on the matter. [1] While some articles support either President Bush or Senator Kerry, others claim that...

Outcry over English lessons Fewer children in England are studying languages A report calling for all school children in France to learn English has started a heated debate. The report, part of a review of the French education system, said English should be made compulsory. According to Le Monde, it says pupils should leave school with the language of "international communication". The Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is said to back the proposal, but some politicians are against it. In England, the government has been criticised for removing the compulsion for children over the age of 14 to learn any foreign...

OLEAN -- Somewhat lost in all the media mist over who won last week's initial debate in the presidential election is a stinging John Kerry reference to late September news that I thought would draw much more play and citizen attention than it did. It should have triggered a public furor. Three days before the Kerry-Bush face-off in Miami, the Justice Department released a classified summary of a frightening report by that agency's Inspector General. The bad news literally sent a chill down my spine. The IG investigation discovered that 123,000 hours of eavesdropped recordings related to possible terrorist plans...