Islam and Arabic

[Robert Lawless]

The conflating of Islam with Arabic should be on interest to linguists. 
According to an article today in Counterpunch by Anthony DiMaggio:

Daniel Pipes lays out his case in a number of editorials written in the NY 
Sun in the last few months. Pipes claims as "fact" that "Islamic 
institutions . . ., whether schools or mosques, have a pattern of extremism 
and even violence." He argues that "learning Arabic in-and-of-itself 
promotes an Islamic outlook," as "Arabic-language instruction is inevitably 
laden with pan-Arabist and Islamist baggage." Pipes feels that the teaching 
of Arabic may lead to "moral decay," since "Muslims tend to see non-Muslims 
learning Arabic as a step toward an eventual conversion to Islam."  
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