A Word To The Wise

Submitted by Abu Nuwas (Saudi Arabia), Aug 16, 2007 at 08:34

Dear MEF -

Debbie Almontaser's laughable resort to etymology to support her contention that the "Intifada" T-shirts on sale in NY City do not call for an "uprising" in the boroughs of that city but instead are a pro-feminist proclamation to "shake off" the "oppression" of females can only be classified as harebrained.

After all, she contends, the word "intifada" "basically means ‘shaking off.' That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic." (She means "root meaning"…but I imagine Debbie isn't a native English speaker).

That's like saying that since the root meaning of the word "Arab" means "desert inhabitant", why therefore the inhabitants of cities like Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad and so on can't really be called Arabs since, after all, they live in cities and not in the desert.

It is this kind of infantile, illogical argumentation made by Islamist (and Muslim) apologists of whatever stripe or category that constantly renders their rhetoric as ludicrous to any rational audience.

"Debbie's" resignation must have been a particularly bitter pill for her to swallow, I suspect.

After all, her family name – Al-Montasir - is the title of one of the Abbasid caliphs (+862), means "He Who Seeks Victory". "That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic".

-Abu Nuwas-

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