Friday, November 21, 2008

What is Robert Worth's point in this article? I don't understand it especially that he admits that "Officially, the group is like any of the other 29 different scout groups in Lebanon, many of which belong to political parties and serve as feeders for them." He may say that this is bigger. True, but Mr. Worth should know that the Shi`ites constitute the largest sect in Lebanon. Even Amal movement has a scout movement, which Worth does not mention, as do the Phalanges (who actually started this political scout business back in the 1930s). And Mr. Worth: I know that you are taking Arabic classes, but you have a long way to go, I am afraid. For example, what is "This camp is called Tyr fil Say." I took me several minutes to realize he is talking about a town called Tayr Filsa. Also, when you say "Takleef Shara’ee", you really mean Taklif Shar`i, but your transliteration of Arabic is now officially that of Irshad Manji who writes and pronounces "Jihad" as Jeeeehaaaooooddaaaeeee. And he mentions the book by former Hizbullah guy, Rami `Alliq (who was a hard core fanatic and whose book contains sleazy and sexist material), without mentioning what `Alliq mentioned about his experience in the US.