[windchime]

You are amazing....and appreciated!

Two characteristics appeared strange to me.

The Islamists/terrorists do not hold women/females in high regard, but he/she gender terms are used almost interchangeably throughout the writing. Do you see any significance in that use?

They use the term DEATH instead of martyrdom in this statement. Found that interesting. Do some of us have to die for them to be martyrs?

".......led to failure of the projects, then the dispersal of the team, and their deaths and imprisonment.

[StillProud2BeFree]

Thank you - always glad to be of help.

Without turning this into a grammar lesson (cause I'd get over my head VERY quickly) I'll try and explain.

In English, we only have three gender pronouns he, she and it. Arabic, like French, has masculine and feminine forms of "it". In French you have "il" and "elle"; in Arabic you have "Howa" and "Heya". They are used depending on the gender of the noun or pronoun that the verb is modifying. (That's why it's a real pain to translate English to Arabic - the genders get me every time!)

I learned enough Arabic where I got to where I can read the language - I don't have to translate to understand, if that makes sense. It's a bad habit of mine, when I translate quickly, or I'm really tired, that I will use the gender specific he and she for howa and heya rather than the gender neutral it. My goof in translation.

They have different words for death and martyrdom. Death is considered a disgrace - in this case I think they are referring to members of Al Qaeda who were killed by US and coalition forces, and who died "without honor", to borrow a Klingon phrase. They goofed - there was no honor in their death, according to their belief system.