Copenhagen schools to teach Arabic

What precisely are the intellectual achievements, or the scholarly literature, that would make Arabic, for example, more important for young Danes to learn than, after the presumed English that they have already mastered, French, or Russian, or Italian, or Spanish, or German, or Portuguese, or Greek, or for that matter, Latin? Or Chinese or Japanese? What is it, other than the brute fact of people having settled in your land who do not wish to integrate, and who regard Arabic as essential to ensuring that their young are kept from integrating, are kept deeply within the fold of Islam, that would recommend Arabic? As the brilliant scholar Franck Salameh has noted, Arabic has always been a vehicle for the cultural "arabization" of those who first underwent a policy of "islamization" -- and in some cases, the "arabization" was a substitute for "islamization" by helping to convince Christian non-Arabs that, in fact, they were "Arabs." This has been a steady Arab Muslim policy: it was at work in the formulations of the Treaty of Taif, where the Christians of Lebanon were forced by Syria and the Saudis (with the American State Department's David Satterfield approvingly looking on)to declare Lebanon to be an "Arab state" -- which it was not, and never had been. Islam has been a vehicle for Arab imperialism; so has the Arabic language, which is required in order to read the Qur'an. This is not a trivial matter.

There are no serious grounds for introducing Arabic if such languages as Italian or Spanish or Chinese are not taught -- the only grounds are to make it easier for the adherents of Islam to better entrench themselves, within but not of Europe. It would be suicidal move. Arabic should be learned, but by a specific group of people, employed in the security and intelligence services. Ordinary students should, at the university level, have available courses in Arabic -- taught by Copts, Maronites, Arabic-speaking Jews so that the sly seductions of even the language-teachers, apologists for Islam and for Araby -- are avoided.

What, after all, are the great works, outside of those having to do with Muslim theology, or impregnated with the Muslim world-view (Ibn Khaldun), that have been produced in the world of Arab Islam? Should they learn Arabic because, 1200 years ago, there were a handful of poets known as "the singing crows"? Would one learn English ONLY if there remained, as its literary legacy, Beowulf and The Exeter Book? Even so-called Arab intellectuals, those who wrote that rare act of self-criticism at the behest of the U.N. two years ago, have recognized the utter intellectual impoverishment of the Arab world -- one that is a direct result, though they did not, or could not, bring themseselves to identify it, of Islamic attitudes. If Islam contains the essential, all ye know on earth and all ye need to know, then why bother with all the rest of the non-Muslim world's intellectual life -- it is, from the viewpoint of Islam, mostly vaporings. (Yes, at this point some Muslim is likely to quote that line about seeking truth "even as far as China." But what that was about was to explain a very limited kind of borrowing, of techniques rather than of real thought. It was a line that could be used to justify accepting paper-making even if it came from China, and Hindu numerals, even if they come from the idolators of the subcontinent; but this is not the same thing as real curiosity, real openness, and the possibility of intellectual life based on what the vast riches of the non-Islamic world have to offer. Islam stunts the mental growth, unless one believes that the Qur'an, hadith, sira, and the commentators on all three, are enough mental nourishment. Look around the Muslim world -- are you impressed with what you see? Are you impressed with the vast artistic, scientific, and scholarly achievements of, for example, Saudi Arabia - which for the past two generations has had all the money in the world. And what has been done with it? Where is the flourishing of culture? Where are all those glittering prizes?

Personally, I would like more U.S. schools to teach Arabic, right alongside military tactics. Think what it would do for our armed forces and intelligence gathering services.

Learning the language of your enemy is a pretty good idea...harder for them to communicate around you....although it does seem like a pretty difficult language to master, especially the writing, looks rather artistic and for someone like me who can't draw a straight line with a ruler...well you know..

Agree with MISS MONEYPENNY.There are obvious advantages learning Arabic so we can find how what our enemies are saying - Remember, KNOW YOUR
ENEMY is very important.The Jews all seem to speak Arabic fluently.

At the same time as the Muslim immigrant population has been growing, violence has become more frequent in Danish schools. Coincidence?

http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/fremmedsprog/English/article.jhtml?articleID=190318

Violence becoming more common in Danish schools

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/80779.html

Summer of stabbings

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/450

Something Rotten in Denmark?
by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard

A Muslim group in Denmark announced a few days ago that a $30,000 bounty would be paid for the murder of several prominent Danish Jews, a threat that garnered wide international notice. Less well known is that this is just one problem associated with Denmark's approximately 200,000 Muslim immigrants. The key issue is that many of them show little desire to fit into their adopted country.

For years, Danes lauded multiculturalism and insisted they had no problem with the Muslim customs - until one day they found that they did. Some major issues:

* Living on the dole: Third-world immigrants - most of them Muslims from countries such as Turkey, Somalia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iraq - constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.

* Engaging in crime: Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.

* Self-imposed isolation: Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.

* Importing unacceptable customs: Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem.

Another is threats to kill Muslims who convert out of Islam. One Kurdish convert to Christianity, who went public to explain why she had changed religion, felt the need to hide her face and conceal her identity, fearing for her life.

* Fomenting anti-Semitism: Muslim violence threatens Denmark's approximately 6,000 Jews, who increasingly depend on police protection. Jewish parents were told by one school principal that she could not guarantee their children's safety and were advised to attend another institution. Anti-Israel marches have turned into anti-Jewish riots. One organization, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, openly calls on Muslims to "kill all Jews . . . wherever you find them."

* Seeking Islamic law: Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.

Other Europeans (such as the late Pim Fortuyn in Holland) have also grown alarmed about these issues, but Danes were the first to make them the basis for a change in government.

In a momentous election last November, a center-right coalition came to power that - for the first time since 1929 - excluded the socialists. The right broke its 72-year losing streak and won a solid parliamentary majority by promising to handle immigration issues, the electorate's first concern, differently from the socialists.

The next nine months did witness some fine-tuning of procedures: Immigrants now must live seven years in Denmark (rather than three) to become permanent residents. Most non-refugees no longer can collect welfare checks immediately on entering the country. No one can bring into the country an intended spouse under the age of 24. And the state prosecutor is considering a ban on Hizb-ut-Tahrir for its death threats against Jews.

These minor adjustments prompted howls internationally - with European and U.N. reports condemning Denmark for racism and "Islamophobia," the Washington Post reporting that Muslim immigrants "face habitual discrimination," and a London Guardian headline announcing that "Copenhagen Flirts with Fascism."

In reality, however, the new government barely addressed the existing problems. Nor did it prevent new ones, such as the death threats against Jews or a recent Islamic edict calling on Muslims to drive Danes out of the Norrebro quarter of Copenhagen.

The authorities remain indulgent. The military mulls permitting Muslim soldiers in Denmark's volunteer International Brigade to opt out of actions they don't agree with - a privilege granted to members of no other faith. Mohammed Omar Bakri, the self-proclaimed London-based "eyes, ears and mouth" of Osama bin Laden, won permission to set up a branch of his organization, Al-Muhajiroun.

Contrary to media reports, the real news from Denmark is not flirting with fascism but getting mired in inertia. A government elected specifically to deal with a set of problems has made minimal headway. Its reluctance has potentially profound implications for the West as a whole.

In my opinion it would be wrong to prioritise Arabic over other more useful languages in schools. (I include Latin in my list of more useful languages as it helps with the Telegraph crossword!)

However, at university level, and for talented linguists in schools - for example, those who have already studied English and Spanish successfully - learning Arabic would be a valuable exercise.

There is obviously the utilitarian argument, that is knowing the language of the 'enemy'. Of course many native Arabic speakers, Muslim and non-Muslim are not the enemy, and it would help to be able to understand these people rather than lumping all Arabic speakers together.

Then there is the fact that Arabic is a fiendishly difficult language to learn. (My brother is learning it and he says it's a nighmare.) Learning difficult languages, indeed difficult things, is good for the human mind and spirit. Surely it is better that girls exercise their brain learning difficult languages rather than exercising their wombs breeding suicide bombers.

Many of the apologists for Islam living in the West know no Arabic and have no idea what the Koran really says. If they knew, they might think differently.

Perhaps.

Next thing they'll be teaching FRENCH!

ALI DASHTI
Thank you for information on Denmark.Violence is very troubling and no doubt has something to do with 'lovely' religion of Islam, so often promoted
as 'peaceful.' Am perturbed that even a rightish government is making little headway against Muslim
demands.
Will mention here top Bangladeshi author, Humayan Azad, has been found dead in flat at Munich. Police say 57yrs Professor died of natural causes but his relatives are disputing this. In February,
Professor Azad of Dhaka University was set upon and savagely knifed by hardline Islamists. The professor had written a book criticizing some aspects of Pakistan.

200,000 muslims could be rounded up and deported back to arab countries within a week.
It should be done,the sooner the better.
No more muslim immigrants.
All mosques should be demolished.

It looks like the Danes are NOT going to offer the bilingual program after all:

http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/fremmedsprog/English/article.jhtml?articleID=190811

Great news, Suzan! Denmark still has quite a few Liberal-Leftwing multiculturalists, but they also have one of the strongest, popular anti-Islamic movements in the Western world. The Rightwing government will usually not allow anything like this.

Well, if anything will push Europe to the right, it will be the whole Muslim problem. Those in Europe with good foresight are already shifting that direction. The others will move as soon as the writing on the wall becomes so clear they can't ignore it.

I am glad to see that issues like this are beginning to wake them up.