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April 05, 2004
Language Of Ignorance
With each passing day I become more convinced that Islam is a religion built on simple concepts: tyranny, poverty, ignorance, and depravity. Fundamentalist Islam is just the pursuit of these four goals of Islam by the most radical means possible. Nothing that I read in this article causes me to doubt my opinion.
Here we have an Arab intellectual lamenting the affect of Islam on the Arab world. Note his field of study... pre-Islamic Arabic poetry! Possibly because there has not been any notable achievement in post-Islamic poetry, short of the Koran itself?
I quote from the article:
- Salman Masalha: A book selling 5,000 copies across the Arab world is a rare achievement. The average book published in Israel sells more copies than a successful book in the entire Arab world. This also has to do with the economic situation. Reading books is a privilege for people who have spare time and money. The poverty that sweeps the Arab world leaves the individual struggling for survival his whole life. How is he supposed to read a book? He must bring food for his children, his family."
Question: "So why not switch the approach and start writing in colloquial [Arabic]?"
Salman Masalha: "Impossible. We don't talk about theater, films, or television series. It's impossible to write research [about] art or history in the colloquial. You need the literary [language]."
Question: "Is the situation of the Arabs in Israel any different?"
Salman Masalha: "I think it's similar. There are 200 readers, no more, among Israel's Arabs."
Posted by crandal at April 5, 2004 12:25 AM