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| Islamophobia in the wake of terrorist attacks and media stereotypes (image copied from an article about Islamophobia on Washington State University Hub) |
“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.”
- Surah Al-Hujurat “The Private Rooms” 49:13 (translated by: Sahih International)
After a discussion with my sister regarding a story she was reading entitled “غربة الياسمين” /Ghorbit El-Yasmin/ or (The Alienation of the Jasmines) by Khawla Hamdi, I felt an urge to clarify somethings up regarding Arabic, Culture and Islamophobia. I felt that I have a duty to do that not only because I am working with languages and have been living abroad for a while but also because I am suffering from Islamophobia myself (yes, I am a Muslim) and maybe my views could help someone else.
Despite being abroad for more than 3 years now I have been insulted (as a Muslim) only twice, once in Stuttgart when a man said something in German that I didn't understand at that time but his words included the word Muslim and his look wasn't that friendly. And the second time was in Galway recently when a pretty lady called me “ISIS” after I smiled to her; maybe because I was wearing a traditional Muslim abaya and of course a headscarf which might seem too much cloth. It upsets me but I have strong feeling that she is not Irish as I believe that the Irish are the nicest people one can ever meet. Probably she didn't mean “Isis” /ˈaɪsɪs/ the ancient Egyptian Goddess of Motherhood and Kindness who has been worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, the Ptolemies, and the Romans; and whose legendary love story is well known among the Egyptians namely “The myth of Isis and Osiris” (to my generation, they are kind of the Pharaonic Romeo and Juliet).
Well, let us get back to our topic. The discussion of my sister and I was about a specific scene in the story “Ghorbit El-Yasmin” where there was an explosion in the lab of a chemistry researcher (who happened to be Muslim) and the phrase “Allahu Akbar” was heard and how the people and authorities reacted.
Although I don't read this genre of stories, this scene stopped me for a while. I was imagining it while my sister was narrating and to be honest, I was afraid! I feared for myself, my faith, my language and my culture (needless to say that I am not defending any of them here). We discussed further, should we stop saying such “religious” phrases because of our fear and insecurities that in an unlikely event something bad might happen and we/our faith will be the first and only suspect! But wait, this is not a linguistic issue but rather a cultural one. If we stopped using such interjections and phrases we will help in diminishing our culture.
The question is how other people (non-natives of a certain language) view certain expression in another language? What should be the basic assumption/feeling when a foreigner hear the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar”?
The answer is simple: the same way when you hear “Jesus!” in Ireland or “Oh Gott!” in Germany; probably nothing.
Now let me shed some light on the linguistic and cultural aspects of this phrase.
The word-for-word translation of “Allah Akbar” will be “God is greater”, grammatically something is missing here, right? In Arabic, this is a superlative construction where “Akbar” is the elative adjective means “greatest”, so a proper translation will be “God is greatest”.
Allah Akbar is used in the Muslim prayers as an opening and before every prostration and kneeling.
It is being used as a multi-purpose interjection in many Arab countries for different reasons of joy or distress. In Egypt, we say it when the electricity suddenly went off. And when your favourite football player scores a brilliant goal sending your team to victory (not to mention the last one by Mohamed Salah which qualified Egypt to the World Cup, I bet everyone was cheering the victory by saying, Allahu Akbar). In the Levantine, you might say it when you find a dining table filled with all the good dishes that you adore from Kebab to Mansaf passing by Stuffed Vine Leaves.
Elsewhere you might say it when one of your kids comes back late at night or when your kids get high or low marks in the final exam (depend on your intonation and posture, they will know what to do either run to their room or run to hug you). More importantly, it is used in times of distress in most Arab cultures for example when seeing a fire or when hearing an explosion as a way to calm oneself down saying that God is greatest and He will help us (similar to holding the Cross in the times of distress).
I am planning to do a comparative analysis of using such interjections in different languages. And I will post the results here.
To wrap up, there is a direct relationship between language and culture. Our everyday language reflects our beliefs, values and attitudes. Our role is to keep our language to preserve our culture.
It is normal to have insecurities towards the things that we don't know or understand.
"الإنسان عدو ما يجهل"
“Ignorance is the parent of fear.” ~ Herman Melville
I understand that the media and the terrorist attacks by some extremists (who are claiming to be Muslims) helped a lot to distort the image of everything related to Islam. But humans are blessed with minds to think about these unknowns.
So nothing bad will happen after hearing Allahu Akbar, Egyptians are not using camels anymore for transportation, and yes Arabic is written from the right to the left ;)
Be Safe...Learn Things...God is the greatest...
Live a better life… (Oh my god, I missed that)
