Arabic-L:GEN:NYTIMES article on Arabic

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1) Subject:NYTIMES article on Arabic

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1)
Date: 24 Mar 2003
From: Samia Montasser <montasser at un.org>
Subject:NYTIMES article on Arabic

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/19/education/19TEAC.html

  Suddenly, a Seller's Market for Arabic Studies
  By SAM DILLON

Prof. Muhammad S. Eissa has never been busier.

  Each weekday he teaches Arabic to students at the Illinois Institute of
  Technology, and because the demand for experienced Arabic instructors
has
  overwhelmed the supply nationwide, his lectures are videotaped for
replay
  in classrooms at a college and a university in Utah.

  In his free time, Dr. Eissa, an Egyptian-born Muslim, has also been
  lecturing church groups and Rotary Clubs that are suddenly eager for
  information about Islam.

  As the pursuit of Al Qaeda and America's confrontation with Iraq
  intensifies, Arabic-speaking educators and Islamic organizations, as
well
  as universities and schools across the nation, are straining to
respond to
  requests by students and the public for information and instruction
about
  the language and culture of Islam.

  "It's just snowballed," said Karin Ryding, who heads Georgetown
  University's Arabic languages department, which offered five beginning
  Arabic classes last semester, instead of the usual two. Other
universities
  reported similar increases or new courses because of the demand.

  Historically, most Americans have been only dimly aware of Islam and
its
  liturgical language, Arabic, but this is not the first time that
national
  interest has built to a fever. The 1979 hostage crisis in Iran led to a
  burst of study of the Muslim world, and the federal government made
more
  money available to train teachers of Mideastern languages and for study
  abroad. By the mid-1980's, however, government and public interest had
  waned, only to increase again, for a while, at the time of the Persian
  Gulf war.

  But now some of Dr. Eissa's students are digging in for the long term,
  betting that an intellectual investment in Arabic will pay off in their
  careers.

  "If we go into Iraq, we're going to need to be over there for a long
time
  to build it back," said Lars Longnecker, a third-year law student who
  decided in December to study Arabic. "So I see our involvement in the
  Mideast increasing, and I figured Arabic would give me a leg up in that
  area."

  Students across the country appear to agree. Kirk Belnap, a professor
of
  Arabic and the director of a federally financed consortium, the
National
  Middle East Language Resource Center at Brigham Young University, said
  many universities were reporting "double or triple enrollments" in
Arabic
  classes.

  "There's been an explosion in interest," said John C. Eisele, executive
  director of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic. The
College of
  William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., where Dr. Eisele teaches,
offered
  two beginning Arabic classes last fall, but had to turn away 20
students.
  Because the demand is similar nationwide, many colleges and
universities,
  as well as half a dozen federal agencies, are seeking to hire people
  fluent in Arabic. "There's a ton of jobs out there," Dr. Eisele said.

  It is not only college campuses that have experienced the surge in
  interest. In Alabama, so many middle school and high school students
asked
  about Islam that nearly 200 Alabama teachers signed up last summer for
a
  course, Understanding Islam, taught by Dr. Angelia Mance, associate
  director of the National Council on Geographic Education.

  "It was the most popular course I've given," said Dr. Mance, who
taught it
  in classrooms packed with teachers in the Alabama towns of Florence,
  Jasper and Hamilton. One of her students was Gail Spann, a public
school
  librarian whose son, Johnny Michael Spann, an officer in the Central
  Intelligence Agency, was killed in Afghanistan in November 2001, Dr.
Mance
  said.

  "War is God's way of teaching world geography to Americans," Dr. Mance
  said, quoting Ambrose Bierce, the 19th-century satirist.

  The Islamic Networks Group, formed in the mid-1990's by California
Muslims
  who believed their religion was being misrepresented in the public
  schools, has in recent months expanded its network of speakers bureaus
to
  25 cities from 18, said Maha ElGenaidi, the group's co-founder, who
grew
  up in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

  The speakers originally lectured about Islam mostly in public schools,
she
  said, but in recent months, the group has been flooded with
invitations to
  explain the religion to police departments, groups for the elderly,
  community centers and Rotary Clubs.

  But if some Americans are suddenly eager to learn about Islam, there is
  much ignorance to overcome.

  Even many university students "lack a rudimentary knowledge of the
nature
  of the Islamic faith," according to a study published in the September
  issue of the Journal of Instructional Psychology. After hearing
statements
  betraying ignorance of Islam, its authors, Thomas Mastrilli and Deborah
  Sardo-Brown, professors at West Chester University in Pennsylvania,
  circulated a questionnaire among 218 students about to become teachers
in
  public schools.
  About half the students could not identify the Koran as the Islamic
holy
  book or Mecca as the holiest Islamic city (one in seven guessed
  Jerusalem), their report said. Not one of the students surveyed could
name
  the world's three most populous Muslim countries: Pakistan, Indonesia
and
  Bangladesh. The two professors called for more education about Islam to
  foster religious tolerance.

  In contrast, a study released this month warned against too much
tolerance
  of Islam. It was written by Gilbert Sewell, a former education editor
at
  Newsweek who heads the American Textbook Council, a New York group
opposed
  to multicultural teaching. Mr. Sewell examined seven widely used middle
  school and high school world history textbooks and concluded that
  publishers made "an effort to circumvent unsavory facts that might cast
  Islam in anything but a positive light." For instance, textbooks have
  "defanged" the term jihad, Mr. Sewell contended, defining it as
Muslims'
  struggle for spiritual improvement rather than more narrowly as holy
war.

  But several textbook publishers criticized Mr. Sewell's objectivity.

  "A lot of his language is just slanted against the religion of Islam,"
  said Collin Earnst, a spokesman for Houghton Mifflin.

  Bernard Lewis, a Princeton Mideast scholar cited extensively by Mr.
  Sewell, declined through his assistant to comment on the report. Rashid
  Khalidi, a professor of history and Near Eastern languages at the
  University of Chicago, called Mr. Sewell's study "a terribly biased
  document full of bigoted statements."

  Mr. Sewell and his critics agree on the importance of increasing
  Americans' familiarity with Islamic civilization ? the challenge to
which
  Dr. Eissa has devoted his professional life since he began teaching
Arabic
  at American universities in 1978.

  "American interest in Islamic affairs comes in waves and then it ebbs,"
  Dr. Eissa said, just before video cameras focused on him as he began
  conjugating Arabic verbs at the start of another class here. "But this
  current tide of fascination seems more intense and wider in
perspective."

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End of Arabic-L:  24 Mar 2003