I just happen to have a copy of a beginning reader, which translates as "See Dick and Jane Behead the Filthy Kufur". There's another entitled: "The Jihad Guide for Idiots". Ooops, did I write Jihad? I must have been unconsciously trying to glorify those un-Islamic miscreants.

Posted by: jewdog at May 11, 2008 2:56 PM

What will have to happen before the reality is stated publicly and often. Islam is a supremicist political system. Those who call it "degenerate" or "childish" are not the problem; the "religion" and its violence-prone adherents are the problem, and civil-rights law ought not apply here. Not at all.

Posted by: StillBreathing at May 11, 2008 3:04 PM

I hate to trot out an ancient chestnut, but - once again we are forced to conclude that "Military Intelligence is a contradiction in terms".

Posted by: Paolo at May 11, 2008 4:49 PM

There are Maronites, Copts, Arabic-speaking Jews, Assyrians and Chaldeans, ready to help out. It takes a very long time, 5-10 years, to become completely proficient not only in Arabic, but in this or that (Egyptian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Gulf, western Maghreb) version. It is silly to spend all those man-hours of soldiers attempting to create such a cadre. And because, as has been pointed out by Franck Salameh, in his indictment of the Middlebury Arabic program, so many of these Arabic-language programs are in the hands of sinister apologists who inject, all along the way, their own views of things, and subtly use a combination of manipulation and personal charm (turned on for the occasion) to win over their students, do a lot of damage, even in courses as seemingly devoid of political content as those in which language instruction takes place.

The emphasis on "training Arabic-language speakers is misplaced. That's trivial. That can be handled by the native speakers who are non-Muslim and can be trusted. And if some soldiers need to learn a modicum of the parley-voo for local efforts, as in Iraq, they can be taught by Arabic-speaking Christians who may not mince words about Islam. At F.O.B. Danger in Tikrit, for example, there was a female teacher, a Christian, from Jordan. These are the people who should be relied on.

Posted by: Hugh at May 11, 2008 5:34 PM

I remember when the U.S. Congress stripped Bob Jones university in North Carolina of its tax-exempt status because it forbid interacial dating on campus.

It's amazing how courgeous our government can be when attacking injustice at a Christian institution, and how tolerant they can be of the intollerance at Islamic institution.

Posted by: rational at May 11, 2008 6:58 PM

Yes.

Note: this applies to more than America.

All of us posting here who may not be American, but have countrymen serving in Iraq/ Mesopotamia, should be writing to our Ministers of Defence making the points that Hugh has made above: that for all purposes of communication, be it deciphering enemy messages, interrogations, or daily business, the obvious people to employ are our fellow Infidels, Arabic speakers who are refugees from Islam - Copts, Maronites, Jews, Assyrians, Chaldeans from the 'Arab' world. And that these same people are the ones we should be hiring to teach 'survival Arabic' to our soldiers. NO MUSLIMS TO BE USED ANYWHERE, it's far too dangerous.

In fact, we have got to try to persuade our governments - and our churches, and our companies - that anywhere we Infidels have to deal with a Muslim society, if at all possible we must find and hire the people who are NOT Muslim but speak the local language. It might be near impossible as regards Afghanistan; but not so impossible elsewhere. Bengali Hindus, Buddhists, Christians. Pakistani Hindus and Pakistani Christians. Indonesian Christians and Hindus. There are Persians in exile who are not Muslim, but Christian or Zoroastrian.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at May 12, 2008 12:08 AM

Coming soon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZNx0xHe0p0&feature=email

Posted by: Alert at May 12, 2008 2:21 AM

I wrote about this in 2002, tongue in cheek of course:

http://tastyinfidelicacies.blogspot.com/2006/02/arabic-as-it-should-be-taught-in.html

Posted by: Jewel Atkins at May 12, 2008 2:36 AM

Hugh, I agree with you about this, but the FBI and other Bureaus of Incompetency see otherwise. They are not using such folk because of Muslims who are sensitive about having to be around the najis and the yahoodis. They are so delicate in their sensibilities.

Posted by: Jewel Atkins at May 12, 2008 2:45 AM