Debating Arabic on Al-Jazeera: Endangerment and Identity in Divergent Discourses

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camelia Suleiman ◽  
Camelia Suleiman ◽  
Russell E. Lucas

Eight debates on Al-Jazeera specifically, on the Arabic language, highlight the divergent and convergent discourses about the status of the language and its use today in the Arab world. All address the issue of the weakness of the Arabic language, both internally between formal and dialect, and externally in the face of globalizing English. The participants also link the Arabic language to issues of identity and who the Arabs ‘are’ during this era of globalization. The article outlines the intellectual roots that many of the participants draw upon—that of the Arab nahda of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Finally, the article points out that there is a divergence between the general direction of scholarship produced in the West on the Arabic language and about the Al-Jazeera network and the broader intersection of language and nationalism addressed by the Al-Jazeera participants. Beyond noting the obvious linkage between language and nationalism, how actual participants deal with their intellectual legacies while attempting to prescribe and influence the present deserves greater analysis in the case of the Arabic language and its most noted vehicle today—the Al-Jazeera satellite television network.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed El-Bendary

It was the first Gulf War in 1991 which led to the satellite television explosion in the Arab world. Arabs then knew about Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait through CNN. Today, Arab satellite channels reach almost every Arab capital and many Middle Eastern and African nations — from Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to Iran in the east, from Syria in the north to Djibouti in the south. This battle for the airwaves and boom in satellite channels in the Arab world has become both a tool for integration and dispersion. It is raising a glimpse of hope that the flow of information will no longer be pouring from the West to the East, but from the East to the West. Questions, however, remain about the credibility of news coverage by Arabic networks like the maverick Qatar-based al-Jazeera and whether Arab journalists adhere to journalistic norms upheld in the West.



This book is devoted to the life and academic legacy of Mustafa Badawi who transformed the study of modern Arabic literature in the second half of the twentieth century. Prior to the 1960s the study of Arabic literature, both classical and modern, had barely been emancipated from the academic approaches of orientalism. The appointment of Badawi as Oxford University's first lecturer in modern Arabic literature changed the face of this subject as Badawi showed, through his teaching and research, that Arabic literature was making vibrant contributions to global culture and thought. Part biography, part collection of critical essays, this book celebrates Badawi's immense contribution to the field and explores his role as a public intellectual in the Arab world and the west.



Author(s):  
الجمعي بولعراس (al-Jamie Boulares) ◽  
ناصـر الغالي (Nasser al-Ghaliy)

ملخص البحثكثُر الكلام عن اللغة السياسية والدعائية بعد أحداث 11 سبتمبر، وطرأت مصطلحات وتعبيرات وأنماط لغوية جديدة تصادمت فيها مع خلفيات متلقي الخطاب وما تحمله  ذاكرتهم من مدلولات سابقة، ومن ثم، نُسجت خيوط اللغة الجديدة المعاصرة، وظلت بعيدة تراوح ردحا من الزمن محاريب السياسة والإعلام والدعاية، ثم إن  الماسك بزمام التوجه اللغوي المعاصر هو الذي أفلح في احتواء الشارع العربي بحثا عن المفاهيم المختلفة، وفي غياب تنمية لغوية حركية وتبرز هوية قائلها في الزمن، وتتحدى عوائق القواميس الانتقائية والنخبوية والمهمشة للأنا والذات، وبحثا عن مستقبل تتحكم فيه عوامل البقاء اللساني في ظل الصراع الحضاري والفكري والسياسي والاقتصادي وذلك كما نتصور بغربلة الزخم اللغوي العربي لاحتواء الواقع الحضاري للأمة ومستحثات الهزات الاجتماعية لتتأقلم بالمستجدات، ويحتاج هذا جهدا لامتلاك ناصية اللغة الجديدة التي توصف بالتمرد على الماضي، وفي الوقت نفسه تريد أن لا تتجرد منه واللغة الجديدة هي نتاج الحراك اللساني المعاصر، وهي لغة التداول اللغوي ولغة المصطلحات المعاصرة، وهي لغة الدعاية والتعبيرات الاصطلاحية الجديدة ولغة الخطاب السياسي المعاصر. وصل البحث إلى بعض النتائج ومن أهمها: وجوب إعادة قواعد وأنظمة سيميائية للغة الخطاب السياسي، توغل الإعلاميين في المصطلحات والتعابير مثل السياسيين.الكلمات المفتاحية: اللغة العربية-العبارة الاصطلاحية- تلقي العبارة السياسية-سياسة العبارة-لعبة السياسةAbstractThere have been a lot of talks about political language and propaganda after the 11 September incident that had led to the application of new terminologies, expressions and language variations in contrast with what were associated with these words previously in the minds of the recipient. Hence,  new strings of language were woven but nonetheless they remained far from being acquainted with the political and propaganda discourses. The one who is responsible in language policy is the one who is successful in including the language of the streets to explore its various concepts. This is in the absence of the growth of language movements, language personalities, and the challenges of  discovering self-identity and in the efforts to search of the future that is characterized by the elements of language survival in the face of the clashes of civilization, thinking, political and economy. In addition to that, the inner conflicts that are witnessed by the Arab world to adapt to the arising matters and issues. This effort will entail to overcome the new direction in language that is vicious toward the past and at the time try to accommodative to the new and contemporary. The research has concluded that: semiotic rules and regulations of political speech should be reviewed, so as for mass media to penetrate deeply in the technical meanings and expression like the politicians.Keywords: Arabic Language – Terminological phrases –reception of political expressions - politics of phrases – politics games.AbstrakTerdapat banyak perbincangan tentang bahasa politik dan propaganda selepas kejadian 11 September, dan telah timbul pelbagai istilah, pernyataan dan bentuk bahasa baru yang bercanggah dengan pengetahuan latarbelakang pendengar serta apa yang telah mereka fahami sebelum ini.  Ia seperti menenunbah asabaru dan terkini, meninggalkan jarak untuk begitu lama yang mencorakkan pembentukan dasar, perjalanan media dan propaganda. Namun, pihak yang menguasai retraktororientasi linguistic terkini itulah yang akan menentukan kandungan perjalanan bahasa Arab dalam pencarian konsep yang berbeza dengan ketiadaan mobility perkembangan liguistik, seterusnya memartabatkan identity pengguna bahasa tersebut.  Sementara beberapa kamus tertentu yang bersifat elitism dan terpinggir pula mencabar keegoan dan diri. Dalam mencari masa depan, factor lisan bersifat mampu saing memainkan peranan penting dalam aruskonflik tamadun, pemikiran, politik dan ekonomi ini dalam menapis momentum bahasa agar mencaku pirealiti tamadun semasa serta kejutan sosial yang teraruh supaya bersesuaian dengan keadaan semasa. Ini memerlukan kesungguhan penguasaan bahasa baru yang tersimpang dari pada yang dulu, dan pada masa yang sama ia tidak terpisah dari pada yang lama.  Bahasa baru ialah hasil pergerakan bahasa semasa, bahasa perundingan dan bahasa istilah semasa.  Ia adalah bahasa propaganda, pernyataan beristilah yang baru dan bahasa wacana politik semasa.  Antara dapatan penting kajian ialah: semakan semula nahu dan prosidur semantic bagi bahasa wacana politik, pihak media mendalami penggunaan istilah serta pernyataan dalam politik.Kata kunci: Bahasa Arab – pernyataan beristilah – pemahaman pernyataan politik – politik pernyataan – permainan politik



Author(s):  
Rania Ahmed Rashid Shaheen Rania Ahmed Rashid Shaheen

The research “The Arab world and its pedagogies” dealt with two tracks, the first track: Arabic between Semitic and the components of global languages, and the second track: pedagogies specific to strengthening the status of the Arabic language, using the descriptive method, and it stemmed from several questions raised by the virtual reader about the reasons for including the Arabic language within International and Semitic languages, and the relationship between the terms (global- international- official), and the most important components of the Arabic language that made it among the international languages. Language and international policies that serve the Arabic language.



1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-566
Author(s):  
Hani M. Atiyyah

This book is the twentieth volume to appear in the Bibliographies andIndexes in Religious Studies series published by Greenwood Press. It isdivided into two parts: a) the introductory chapters, and b) the main bodyof the bibliography and the indexes. The three introductory chapters givean overview of contemporary Islamic revivalist movements from somewhatdifferent perspectives and address many critical issues that are difficultto deal with adequately in just three chaptets.Chapter one discusses such issues as the factors behind the growth ofrevivalist movements, fundamental issues that provide the primary focusfor revivalist writings, the bias of scholars in the West who write andconduct research on Islamic and Middle Eastem studies, and the establishmentof Shari'ah schools in Muslim countries. However, this chaptercontains many less-than-authentic statements or, in other words, somemethodological misinformation. For example, the author refers to a1'Arabi and a1 Muslim a1 Mu 'air as "two Kuwaiti magazines" that triedto promote an intellectual controverjy on "whether the companions of theProphet Muhammad were leftist or rightist and whether the sources of theformative period of Islam can be subjected to modem re-interpretation tojustify claims of Islamic precedent to proponents of 'Islamic left' and'Islamic right"' (p. 5). The author does not document the reasons for thisconclusion, in spite of the fact that the two magazines are different bothin their natures and their contents. AZ 'Arabi is a monthly magazine thatdiscusses current issues for a wide public in the Arab world, whereas a1Muslim a1 Mu'iisir is a quarterly publication that contains various typesof articles related to the Islamization of knowledge.The author of this chapter has attempted to cover a variety of historical,political, and socioeconomic issues. Unfortunately, the attempt ismarred by its inconsistency. For instance, English literature on contemporaryIslamic revivalism, the use of modem media for the disseminationof Islamic literature, and the status and role of Muslim womenwere discussed twice in different parts of the chapter. Many critical termsappear without satisfactory justification: "terrorists," "zealots," "militants," ...



Author(s):  
Bayan Haddad

May Ziadeh was a prominent literary figure and salonnière in the Arab world in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. A journalist, essayist, author and literary critic, she was also known for being a spellbinding orator and an unusually gifted stylist and translator. Ziadeh was best known for instituting a long running weekly salon (1911–1931) in her home that brought together leading men and women in the period when Egyptian anti-colonial nationalism was at its height. Ziadeh was also a strong advocate of the emancipation of women in the Arab society. Famous for being moderate, Ziadeh did not equate modernity with the denial of Arabic cultural heritage in blind imitation of the West. Many critics believe that modern Arabic literature has not produced a female writer of Ziadeh’s calibre and that her contribution to the feminist cause cannot be overlooked.



2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Boutheina Khaldi

Since independence, the educational system in the Arab world in general, and Tunisia in particular, has continued to alienate itself from the mainstream society. Deeply rooted in a colonial past, education has failed to effect social, economic, and political change. this paper focuses on the status of education, and by extension Arabic language, in Post-independent Tunisia. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of Cultural Reproduction, and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of Cultural Hegemony. The method used is descriptive; to describe the research topic problems qualitatively to draw conclusions objectively according to primary data. The historical method is analyzing past events, interpreting them, and presenting the results to highlight their present and future effects.The finding sets out to argue that educational institutions are sites of power play.





2002 ◽  
pp. 106-110
Author(s):  
Liudmyla O. Fylypovych

Sociology of religion in the West is a field of knowledge with at least 100 years of history. As a science and as a discipline, the sociology of religion has been developing in most Western universities since the late nineteenth century, having established traditions, forming well-known schools, areas related to the names of famous scholars. The total number of researchers of religion abroad has never been counted, but there are more than a thousand different centers, universities, colleges where religion is taught and studied. If we assume that each of them has an average of 10 religious scholars, theologians, then the army of scholars of religion is amazing. Most of them are united in representative associations of researchers of religion, which have a clear sociological color. Among them are the most famous International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR) and the Society for Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR).



2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-72
Author(s):  
Morteza Karimi-Nia

The status of tafsīr and Qur'anic studies in the Islamic Republic of Iran has changed significantly during recent decades. The essay provides an overview of the state of Qur'anic studies in Iran today, aiming to examine the extent of the impact of studies by Western scholars on Iranian academic circles during the last three decades and the relationship between them. As in most Islamic countries, the major bulk of academic activity in Iran in this field used to be undertaken by the traditional ʿulamāʾ; however, since the beginning of the twentieth century and the establishment of universities and other academic institutions in the Islamic world, there has been increasing diversity and development. After the Islamic Revolution, many gradual changes in the structure and approach of centres of religious learning and universities have occurred. Contemporary advancements in modern sciences and communications technologies have gradually brought the institutions engaged in the study of human sciences to confront the new context. As a result, the traditional Shīʿī centres of learning, which until 50 years ago devoted themselves exclusively to the study of Islamic law and jurisprudence, today pay attention to the teaching of foreign languages, Qur'anic sciences and exegesis, including Western studies about the Qur'an, to a certain extent, and recognise the importance of almost all of the human sciences of the West.



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