« January 2008 | Main | March 2008 »
From Professor Juan Cole: Barack Hussein Obama, Omar Bradley, Benjamin Franklin and other Semitically Named American Heroes.
"I want to say something about Barack Hussein Obama's name. It is a name to be proud of. It is an American name. It is a blessed name. It is a heroic name, as heroic and American in its own way as the name of General Omar Nelson Bradley or the name of Benjamin Franklin. And denigrating that name is a form of racial and religious bigotry of the most vile and debased sort. It is a prejudice against names deriving from Semitic languages!"
Cole goes on to analyze the meaning of Barack and Hussein in Arabic; he discusses at length the Hebrew meanings of names such as Barak, Benjamin and Abraham; he points out all the American heroes with Arabic/Semitic names, and he makes note of the number of Americans who probably have Arab or Muslim ancestors or relatives. (He counts John McCain, whose adopted daughter is from Bangladesh and therefore has blood relations who are Muslim).
A rousing response to the Muslim-baiting we hear re: Barack Hussein Obama.
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.
Deborah Madison: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Indispensable - I use it all the time, and give it as presents to brides, young people starting out, etc. Not for vegetarians only - hence the title - a great resource for anybody wanting delicious recipes for vegetables, grains and legumes. Great sauces and salads, too.
Claudia Roden: Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon
Excellent in-depth cultural and social essays on three major cuisines; the recipes include the standards as well as unusual dishes, and the photographs are gorgeous. A great gift book - the Dove asked for and got it for Christmas.