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In case you're stuck, I'll give you a clue. All the words, except one,
are of Arabic origin. In fact, there are probably several hundred
Arabic words in English, though dictionaries don't always make the
derivation clear: many have entered the language through Spanish or
French.
Most of the words came to Europe during the seven centuries of Muslim
rule which began in 711 AD when an army led by Tariq ibn Ziyad landed
at what we now know as Gibraltar - a mispronunciation of Jabal Tariq
("Tariq's mountain"). The Arabs rapidly conquered Spain, Portugal and
parts of Italy, and ventured as far north as Poitiers in France.
The contribution that the Arabs made to our civilisation during this
period is often overlooked today - though anyone who visits Granada,
Cordova or Seville in southern Spain cannot fail to be reminded of it,
and impressed.
Today, the tables are turned. Arabs usually resort to English when
encountering a foreigner. Indeed, they say "aloo" (hello) when
answering the phone, even if the caller is likely to be another Arab.
After a few moments our teacher interrupted. "The students are here to
learn Arabic. Please don't speak in English."
"It's very difficult," said the engineer. "I don't have the words in
Arabic."
Many Arabs worry about this, believing that their language is losing
its purity in the face of an onslaught of foreign vocabulary. Some
would like to see an Arabic Academy, along the lines of the French
Academy, discouraging the use of foreign words and promoting
alternatives derived from Arabic roots.
Sometimes the Arabic words do exist. Sayyara ("a thing that moves
about") is widely used for "car", but Moroccans prefer tumubeel (a
corruption of "automobile").
Arabs with little education whose feel for its words and their
capabilities is absolutely astonishing. But all languages have some
weaknesses and, by interchange, can enrich each other.
You won't find it in the dictionary, but you'd be hard pressed find an
eight-letter word in any language more replete with colourful social
imagery.
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Arabs are the only really vicious racial stereotypes still considered
acceptable in Hollywood, writes Middle East editor Brian Whitaker
"Stop it, you dirty little Arab!" My grandmother always used to say
that when I did something disgusting, like picking my nose or flicking
food at my younger brother.
It was a long time ago, of course. In those days children were taught
rhymes like "Ten Little Nigger Boys" and recited them to admiring
aunties.
We have certainly come a long way since then. Oddly, though - and I
have noticed this particularly since starting to write about the
Middle East for the Guardian - there are people who seem happy to talk
about Arabs in terms that they would never use when talking about
black people. It doesn't occur to them that this is racist.
As the plane fell from the sky, the co-pilot repeated an Arabic
phrase, "tawakilt 'ala Allah" (I rely on God). This phrase, picked up
by the cockpit voice recorder, was leaked to the American media, who
variously described it as "a prayer" or a "chant", fuelling the theory
that the co-pilot was an Islamic fundamentalist who had deliberately
crashed the plane.
The Egyptians were furious and pointed out that the phrase is
routinely used by Muslims, not just fundamentalists, when facing
difficult situations. They accused the American investigators of
making the co-pilot a scapegoat, and being reluctant to explore the
possibility of a mechanical failure in the American-built Boeing 767.
The FBI came up with statements from staff at the hotel used by
EgyptAir crews in New York saying that the co-pilot was noted for
sexually harassing chambermaids and had once exposed himself through
the hotel window. Again, these allegations were leaked to the press.
This, apparently, was meant to imply that the co-pilot had an unstable
personality and should not have been allowed to fly. Questioning the
relevance of the FBI statements at a Washington press conference last
week, an Egyptian journalist asked whether, if that kind of behaviour
made someone unfit to control a plane, it did not also make the US
president Bill Clinton unfit to control nuclear weapons.
But I think attitudes to Islam may also be part of the problem. People
in the west often assume that Arabs are Muslims (and sometimes vice