The word Fitna

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Apr 9, 2008 at 18:58

Jennifer wrote

>What did you think of the film, "Fitna"?

Great and sad movie and Muslims do not like it because it speaks volumes about Islam

>I get a kick out of your posts - -

Thank you and I do my best to be as sarcastic as I can, more so with clueless and wannabe Arabs and read this as Pakistanis. And if you want to have a laugh read present chat with a Pakistani that lives here in the US and (which I call Islamic delusions) where he believes that he knows Arabic when in reality his Arabic is very much what I call Pakistani Arabic or pathetic Arabic and the funny thing is he has no clue what al-salam 'aliakum or bism allah al-rahaman al-rahim are all about (and this is no more than Arabic 101 but in his mind he believes that he knows Arabs)

>and it would seem you speak Arabic.

Yes I do speak, read and write classical, modern and Egyptian Arabic and my command of the language(s) seem to be far better than most Arabs. What is very strange is that even educated Arabs have very poor command of the Arabic language grammar and i do not understand it except in the case of Egypt where Egyptian Arabic is really a different language with a very different grammar and syntax (not unlike the case of Italian vs. Latin and for a good book about Egyptian read Niloofar Haeri's book: "Sacred language ordinary people, dilemmmas of culture and politica in Egypt" ).

It started with being a student of Egypt in the late antique period (the period up to 750CE or the end of the Umayyad's period). And to be able to really understand history one must read the primary sources in their primary languages. I love languages and i started reading the Qur'an in Arabic and the rest is history. And I can assure you that the Qur'an is indeed a confused and confusing book that does not make any sense without reading the commentaries. However, once you do this it means that you are reading literature that is being explained by Muslims that did not witness the events in the life of Muhammad when the Qur'an was "revealed" to him

Just imagine if you or I are trying to reconstruct the life of let us say Abraham Lincoln without any literary sources. I'm sure you will agree with me it will be not real history and this is indeed the problem with Muslim sources about the history of early Islam. These sources are really late. I also challenge anyone to reconstruct the life of Muhammad by reading the Qur'an only. Really shocking

>What does the word "Fitna" mean?

It means as per Hans Wehr dictionary (see page 696A) and Wortabet dictionary (see page 241A) dissension, affliction, trial, sedition or civil strife (it also has other meanings but in the case of this movie this is what the word means).

>It's an Arabic word - from what I've found on the internet - I've read it means "strife"

Yes it can mean strife

>What say you?

I agree.

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