Marie Dhumieres “Bad translation makes …
Marie Dhumieres “Bad translation makes fundamentalists of us all” writes about how people are mislead if they take all the religious language used in Arabic cultures to actually mean that the people are very religious. She argues that the frequent use of religious phrases is just a verbal or cultural tic that has nothing to do with the person actually being religious or meaning what they are literally saying when they say inshAllah or Alhamdulillah.
But that’s just the way Arabic people speak. Fundamentalist Muslims, devout Muslims, moderate Muslims, part-time Muslims, Christians, Atheists – no one has an entire conversation without saying at the very least “Inshallah”, which literally means “God willing” and comes from the idea that you never know what God’s plan is. It can be used as much as you want, even if you’re not really thinking about God’s plans at that very moment.
No doubt there is truth in this. But I think Ms.Dhumieres is perhaps biased by her own lack of belief or by the crowd she is likely to hang out with into thinking that such phrases are completely meaningless for most people. I, likewise, am probably biased by own belief and practice and by the crowd I am likely to hang out with when I tend to think that most people using these phrases, even if they are not “perfect” believers actually do mean them. Maybe that just means I am a fundamentalist.
I reacted against this piece I think, because nothing bothers me more than to see a movie involving Muslims when the character says “al-salaamu ‘alaykum” and a subtitle appears saying “hello” or “hi” or something like that or if someone says “alhamdulillah” and it is translated as “I’m doing fine.”
shams, and 
abunoor are discussing.
abunoor 4:00 pm on July 21, 2010 Permalink
Of course the fact that ‘traditional’ cultures employed commonplace religious references is not limited to Arabic, although it seems that Arab/Muslim culture has retained this much more at least than secular liberal western elites.
I wonder if anyone has an idea whether the use of religious terminology has increased in the last couple of decades as has other forms of outward religious observance like hijab, or is it truly a constant from traditional culture.
shams 11:06 pm on July 21, 2010 Permalink
i think westerners simply cannot understand arabic. it is the most exquisite and flexible language, and soaked in god and poetry.
Words have meaning.
i was so lucky to be introduced to arabic by jahal poetry…. which flowed naturally like water into the short suras of the Qur’an.
you are right about Dhumieres…..she is sadly lacking an organ of perception that you and i share, Abu.
Lawrence of Arabia 10:58 pm on July 22, 2010 Permalink
It seems to me that while they do often function in precisely the way she says they do there is ALSO something more going on, and in many cases I doubt it is very self-conscious. So, you must be right to some extent. She seems to be selling those linguistic habits short.
All you have to do is contrast the usage which she is talking about with the way in which Arabic speaking Melkites greet one another. They do not use the same language because they see it is as a Muslim form of address (insh’allah is much more common). [Melkites are an interesting case, in that they may not even be comfortable identifying themselves as, e.g., Egyptian, because they also equate that with Muslim, but will instead tell you they are "Rumi".]
When an Arab uses that language they are affirming something, even if it just their location and participation within a particular cultural tradition (which is no small thing), however unconscious that may be, and however lacking in religious devotion, in some narrower sense, it might be (which is, often enough, the case).