Comments on: Avoiding the issue, Part 2

By: Carlos

Carlos — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:31:44 +0000

You guys (Harry’s Place and the author of the above piece of nonsense) are full of shit. You masquerade as pro-liberty whereas in fact you are a bunch of Judaeo-centric fascists and racists. Hasbara or sayanim, or both? Your day will come!

By: Carlos

Carlos — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:31:31 +0000

By: Greatful

Greatful — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:02:51 +0000

Thanks so much, for your well thought out and rigorous analysis. You are such a powerful intellectual that you can grasp the entire arab culture from it’s pre-islamic origins to the present day after having lived in one arab country and visiting a few others.

Perhaps there is an equivalent Arab genius who speaks a bit of german and lived in Munich for a while to summarize the entire European culture and mentality.

Also thanks for much for your logical lumping together of all european languages, after all they are all exactly the same, with no distinction between germanic, latin, slavic languages. Very astute.

Again, thanks for highlighting the sheer inferiority and lack of objectivity of arab mass media compared to objective and highly intellectual level of programming and articles in Fox New and the SUN.

This is a great line in your post:

“After all there are only so many conversations you can have about sand before it starts to get boring.”

Absolutely no racist or derogatory undertones here what so ever.

Also thanks so much for all the people reading here and posting their enthusiasm for your post. It’s great to see that all you have to do is be an armchair anthropologist on arab/islamic culture, add a good dash of derogatory comments and then build up such a wide fan base.

Great work.

By: abraham

abraham — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:07:26 +0000

But don’t just take that as a given, allow me to demonstrate:

Al Jazeera is one of the most popular channels in the Arab world. Why? Because it knows exactly what its audience wants to hear. If these views weren’t popular then these sorts of programmes would not be made. (It’s comforting that Al Arabiya is also popular, indicating that there is also a demand for moderate, reformist voices.)

Let me take the liberty of switchg just a couple words to show what a total douchebag you are:

Fox is one of the most popular channels in America. Why? Because it knows exactly what its audience wants to hear. If these views weren’t popular then these sorts of programmes would not be made. (It’s comforting that CNN is also popular, indicating that there is also a demand for moderate, reformist voices.)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

By: Nearly Oxfordian

Nearly Oxfordian — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:59:00 +0000

“In fact, modern standard Arabic is as connected to classical Arabic as modern Hebrew is to biblical”

I don’t speak Arabic, but I don’t believe you are very familiar with Hebrew at all. Modern Hebrew is amazingly closely connected to Biblical Hebrew.

By: Nearly Oxfordian

Nearly Oxfordian — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:56:40 +0000

“But philosphically all truth must be translatable.”

Circular argument, I fear. First you need to demonstrate that such a thing as ‘truth’, in an objective, culture-independent sense, even exists.

Therefore, you have done exactly nothing to disprove S-W.

By: ishai

ishai — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:57:24 +0000

Although the Sapir Wharf hypothesis is the subject of much debate, it sets out how language influences thought and thought language.

Al-takeyya and kitman are essential aspects of Arab culture, perhaps developed in order to adapt to a language which has necessarily to be cryptic, if what you say above is true. From not being able to articulate what you actually mean to deliberately being secretive about what you actually mean is but a short step.

By: Albert

Albert — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:40:46 +0000

You’re all missing the point. Spoken Arabic varies enormously from country to country and has as much to do with standard written Arabic as Italian or French or Spanish have with Latin. Most Arabs in Egypt are illiterate and don’t know any standard Arabic except maybe the bits of the Koran they may have memorised. In any case, the Koran is “classical” Arabic and differs in many ways from modern standard written Arabic. In fact, modern standard Arabic is as connected to classical Arabic as modern Hebrew is to biblical. I’m pretty familiar with spoken, modern and classical forms of Arabic and I have to say the post is basically rubbish. A huge amount of classical Greek philosophical texts were saved and continued through Arabic translation and furthered in Arabic. Mathematic treatises were also written and developed to a very high level in Arabic. None of that could have been possible had Arabic been what the new learner of it claims.
Today’s problems in the Arab world arise from a variety of serious issues having nothing directly to do with the language or languages spoken there. We all know the basic issues – a highly backward religion, tribalism, pathological corruption at every level, oppression of women and minorities (religious and non-Arab), illiteracy, poor education in general, constant brainwashing, cultural inability to take responsibility for own actions and cultural scape-goating for own failures, cultural inability to appreciate democratic and liberal values, cultural inability to look at self or religion critically etc. These are the issues that fuck the Arab world up, not the Arab world’s language(s).

By: Sue R

Sue R — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:45:22 +0000

I don’t think Robert Fisk is being coy about saying that he believes that the Americans were responsible for the death of Margaret Hassan. I think he spells it out.

By: Ismael

Ismael — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:57:56 +0000

I was a little concerned when I read this piece, but I bore it in mind when reading today’s article by Robert Fisk on the last moments of Margaret Hassan. Mr Fisk does in English exactly the things you describe here. His circumlocution invites one to draw the conclusion, if one wishes, that American agents killed Mrs Hassan. No doubt he would deny this as preposterous, but nevertheless it appears to be what he is saying. I now understand why he is the Islamists’ favourite journalist.

But to lay the blame at Arabic still seems wrong to me. Rather it is a culture of indirectness that leaves one’s listener able to take what he wants – meaning that the pushiest individuals incur no resistance.