How about if we try sticking to the topic?

Submitted by Angela Class (United States), Jun 10, 2007 at 19:28

"Dhimmi no more"-

I find it regrettable that you seem to feel the need to frequently respond to those who disagree with you on these postings with vitriolic and sarcastic name calling. I notice that you seem to also relish needlessly pointing out typographical and other similar minor errors. This makes it appear that you don't think your arguments are sufficient on their own, and frankly, I find them thin and poorly substantiated.

You can't hide a lack of substance behind insults. That never works on intelligent people.

That is not what I would call civil discourse.

I would ask that you address me by my name, if you must do so, address the issues themselves as thoroughly as you are able, and refrain from repeatedly riddling your responses with your pet "insult" phrases in a pathetic attempt to pigeon-hole and denigrate me, or others on this blog. Otherwise your comments contribute little of value to the discussion.

I'm sure other people are as unimpressed as I am. If you have some valuable statement to make, I wish you would. I far prefer that to having you so disingenuously refer to me as "Our Dear". It's patronizing and offensive. I have noticed that you apply these silly false endearments mostly to women.

This is not a credit to you. You can expect to hear a variation on a response similar to "Don't call me Honey"

frequently from women in native English speaking nations. Just in case you didn't know, we generally consider it an insult from any person we don't know, especially, any male we don't know.

A little cultural perspective; we consider that sexist and diminuitive.

As far as the actual issue being discussed, while it may be true that actions speak louder than words, that is an entirely separate issue that bears being addressed on it's own, it is nonetheless true, and well established, that usage is as important an element in determining the meaning of words as root origin. So even if you were correct on that very weak point, (which I do not concede, not hardly) you would still be wrong about the meaning based on extensively recognized usage, as I attempted to explain previously. Perhaps it is your English, and not my Arabic, that needs remediation.

If countless native Arabic speaking people agree that it means "peace" to them, how is it valuable to argue so rabidly about word roots, which are frequently highly debated in linguistics, in this instance in particular, and especially in a language as subtle and complex as Arabic? One hears this kind of disagreement about the root meanings of word after word, and many times there is more than one word root that applies. This is not an isolated incedence of this type of controversy. It's a very common occurence.

Certainly a number of native Arabic speaking scholars of diverse backgrounds, and of far greater ability than my own, agree with that translation. My point is this; it is of little value to attempt to disabuse people of long cherished words and phrases in continuous and extensive usage because they do not coincide with one's own politically correct beliefs of the moment, nor is it honest to deny the existence of such a clearly established and closely held cultural phenomenon because it does not serve your will.

This is such a very serious topic. To see such childish retorts to it is disheartening. Peace is at the heart of Islam, just as it is at the heart of Christianity, Judaism, and all the great wisdom traditions of the world. To fail to recognize this is to miss their meaning entirely.

The sooner we all remember and recognize this important shared value, the safer our world will become.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".