I attended a Madrasa in South Lebanon!

Now that the rumor mills are cranking about Barack Hussein Obama, I am reminded that I, too attended a madrasa in South Lebanon when I was eight. My father attended the Boys' madrasa across the street for over a decade, and he enrolled me in the Girls' Madrasa in 1970 so I could learn Arabic. Muslim students attended that madrasa! See this picture from the 19th century of the Boys' madrasa with students lined up in alarming Islamic-looking robes.

Troll visitors occasionally drop in to accuse me of IslamoFascism based on some comment of mine (this usually happens when I object to Israel killing Lebanese; see July 2006). I always explain that while my name, Leila Abu-Saba, makes me sound like a terrorist in the minds of the bigoted, I am actually from a Christian Lebanese family (via my father) whose church is older than the Church of Rome. My American grandfather, a Methodist minister, baptized me himself so I am a Protestant.

Dear non-Arabic-speaking readers: Madrasa means school in Arabic. I attended the Sidon Evangelical School for Girls, founded by American Presbyterian missionaries in the 1860s. My father attended the Gerard Institute across the street, opened a few years later to train boys for vocations, then turned into a college preparatory institute before the 19th century was done.

In my village the school was always referred to as Madrasat Al-Amerikan. The American Madrasa. I was indoctrinated in the rigors of Protestantism and the glories of imperialism, most likely. But I did have Muslim classmates, so if you are terrified of Muslim bogeymen under your bed, ready to overthrow the Republic, you can comfort yourself that I was indeed contaminated with the dread Islamic peril during my half-year in the second grade at the Sidon Evangelical School for Girls.

Yes, I am a fifth columnist for radical Protestant missionaries and madrasa teachers.

Oh, that reminds me - my mother taught in this madrasa! It was 1962, she was a bored housewife in Ain-el-Helweh, and she taught music to the little children at Madrasat al-American. Worse and worse.

Comments

[Judy]

My kids attended a madrasa too, in Beit Hanina. OMGosh, come to think of it, I taught at one!

Always make me laugh when the right wing nuts (and a few lefties, now that I think of it) say madrasa as tho it's an obscenity.

[Ann]

Everyone I know attended a madrassa! Why sometimes, we'd even sit on the hashish on a sunny day.

Great post. Long live the beautiful Arabic language and all the loan words that have escaped Islamophobic tarring, like:

admiral adobe aladdin albacore albatross alborak alchemy alcove alembic alfalfa algebra algorithm ali baba alkali alkanet almagest almanac amalgam amber antimony apricot arak arsenal artichoke azimuth azoth azure barberry bard bedouin blighty borax bougie buckram burgoo calibre camel camphor candy carafe carat caraway cipher coffee cotton crimson damascene dragoman durra elemi elixir fakir falafel fellah felucca fennec gazelle gerbil ghoul gibraltar giraffe guitar hajji halal halvah hammam harem hazard henna imam jar jasmine jennet jerboa jinnee julep kebab kismet kohl lemon lilac lime loofah lute macramé magazine marzipan mattress minaret mohair monsoon mosque mozarab mummy muslin nadir orange oud mater ramadan ream rook safari saffron sahara saice sash satin scarlet senna sequin sesame sheikh sherbet soda sofa souk spinach sugar sumac summit syrup tabby tabla tahini talc talisman tamarind tambourine tare tariff tarragon trafalgar vizier zarf zedoary zenith zero

[Leila]

Note to non-Arabic speaking readers: hashish just means grass in Arabic. Yes you can smoke hashish (cannabis) that will get you high, but the plain old lawn you sit on is also called hashish.

[Leila]

Woops - I am not certain I should translate the smokable hashish as cannabis, since I don't know if it's cannabis or something else. You know what I mean. That stuff we call hashish or hash in English, that gets you high and is more potent than marijuana although who knows anymore. I never cared for either so I am out of the loop. Anyway. It's hashish, and so is the garden-variety grass that grows underfoot in the standard British-invented lawn, imported to colonialist madrasas across the Middle East.

[Leila]

Wikipedia is our friend. Whether or not the entry on hashish is correct, I cannot say. The smokable stuff is a concentrated form of cannabis. Anybody who knows better is welcome to contradict me in comments.