[Peace-discuss] little teapot in Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and Jawi Malay

[Karen Medina]

[Below is a reaction to the "I'm a Little Teapot" signs on the Richmond Virginia buses. The post basically asks why the signs were not "interspersed Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and even Jawi Malay words", stating that "it would not detract from the program's intent" and it would be more representative of the Muslim world (there are many ethnicities which make up the the Islamic diaspora) - karen medina]

The following was taken from http://www.progressiveislam.org/arabic_ads_dispel_fear_what_about_urdu

Arabic Ads To Dispel Fear, But What About Urdu?
Wed, 2007-01-03 21:17 — OmarG
Even a glimmer of intelligence prompts me to ask the hard questions. As reported by the AP, a program by an interfaith group in Richmond, VA places ads on buses and billboards with Arabic writing on them to decrease the association of the script with terrorism and other negative connotations. It sounds like a really good idea...but what about its cultural and linguistic implications for the rest of us non-Arab Muslims?

Ads Hope to Dispel Fears of Muslims
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

The small beige signs bearing swirling, black Arabic script appear all over town on buses and at colleges. One panicked bus rider wondered if they were secret messages from terrorists. Should the FBI be contacted? What do they mean? Actual translation: "Paper or plastic?" The signs are part of a campaign by the Virginia Interfaith Center,aimed at dispelling some of the public's fears about the Muslim community.

"As soon as people see Arabic, they immediately make an association with terrorism," said the Rev. C. Douglas Smith, executive director of the interfaith center. "That's probably because since 9/11, not only is fear overwhelming us, but that's how we're being trained to think."

Besides the "paper or plastic" sign, there are two others _ one which is the Arabic version of the "I'm a little tea pot" rhyme and the other roughly translating to the English equivalent of "rock, paper, scissors." Accompanying the translations at the bottom of the posters are comments such as, "Misunderstanding can make anything scary," and "What did you think it said?"

Sure, I understand that. But, from an academic point of view I do find it curious that they would choose Arabic the language rather than Urdu even though both are written in Arabic script. I mean, if no one knows what they say and the point is to expose people to the script as a familiarization technique, the underlying language is unimportant. They could have easily interspersed Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and even Jawi Malay words and it would not detract from the program's intent. I am curious to learn which Muslims were consulted on it; I would not be surprised if they were primarily of Arab origins.

Which leads me to taking off my academic hat and putting on my Muslim hat: my main point is that the popular perception equates Muslim and Arab. I think if we are to become an indigenous community, we have to get past that. We cannot let one ethnic group become the defining ethnicity for an American Muslim ummah, especially if they are only 1/4 of the Muslims in the US. We have many ethnicities which make up our little corner of the ummah; there is so much alienation and ethnic cliquishness that being ultra-inclusive seems like a good idea to sooth the ethnic divisions. Notice how often we hear the phrase "Arab-Islamic" as an adjective: "The Arab-Islamic World" for example. The only Muslim ethnicity called out by name is the Arab one; all the rest (which are the collective majority) have their identities erased by simply grouping us together as "Islamic". Why not say, "Arab-Indian-Persian-Turkish-Malay-Swahili Islamic"? That would be a mouthful, I suppose. Then, why not just leave behind the labeling of only a single ethnic group and say only "Islamic"? So, when I see events such as this, it makes me wonder if this is another symptom of thinking that all Muslims are Arabs (among the general population) or among us, that Arabs and in this case, their language is the only one that matters. Given the poor inter-ethnic relations in our ummah, I'm fairly sensitive to recognize such symptoms and inquire about them.

Now, if the project was to deflate hyperfears of Arab-Americans, why did they include the 'Muslim' part? There are more Christian Arab-Americans than Muslim ones. So then, if they then claim it is a 'Muslim' thing, I would have gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling at seeing an effort to include other Muslim languages written in the Arabic script in order to signal a willingness to repair the problematic ethnic relations in our part of the ummah. Why not, eh?