Detailed Processes for getting Egyptian papers

My friend Allison has a lovely blog http://rassudrsinai.blogspot.com/ She has recently gone through the process of getting her Egyptian papers in order and has blogged about it.

I'm linking to the processes here:

Acquiring Egyptian citizenship for an expat spouse of an Egyptian.

Acquiring Egyptian ID & Passport (after acquiring citizenship)

Acquiring Egyptian ID with surname changed to husbands

Acquiring Egyptian Birth Certificate for foreign nationals

Acquring copy of Criminal Record -Feesh wa Tashbee

Hope this can help

Photo Essays of Cairo Monuments

Hey everyone, I know I haven't updated my blog for ages. I've just been dealing with a lot and blogging has had to take a backseat for awhile.

A friend of mine recently visited Cairo and his pictures are far more evocative than my words. He has captured images that seemed new to me, even though I have visited each place so often. I'm sure you will enjoy them too.

Here are the links to his photo essays with a sample photo for each as a teaser.
Sayyidna al Hussein Mosque


Bayt al Suhaymi


Fishawy Cafe and Khan el Khalili


Madrasa-Khanqah of Sultan Barquq


Al Azhar Mosque and Around


Citadel of Saladin


Al Aqmar Mosque


The Silksellers Street


Sabeel Kuttab of Kathkuda


Sharia al Muizz li Din Allah


Shops along Sharia al Muizz li Din Allah


Madrasa and Mausoleum of Sultan Qualawun


Sultan al Mu'ayyad Mosque


Bab Zuwayla


Out and About in Cairo


The Thousand Minarets of Cairo


View from BD's Hotel Room

All the pictures in this post are from Bhaskar's Photo Blog He owns the copyright on all these pictures. Please do not republish his pictures without checking with him/giving him credit.

Egypt's hash crisis?

I wouldn't think that lack of availability of an illegal substance could be termed a crisis. But this writer seems to think so and has a perspective on the issue.

Max Strasser on The Faster Times

He sums his article up by saying "Life is difficult for most people here. Let them get stoned." - and that's not in the Biblical/Quranical sense :)

Egypt salvages its modern treasures

Maryanne brought my attention to this article in the The Christian Science Monitor

By Frederick Deknatel Contributor / January 11, 2010

Cairo

Amgad Naguib is sitting in his garagelike storage space on a side street in the dusty belle epoque heart of downtown Cairo looking to buy junk. “Bikya!” the junk seller yells from his cart on the street outside, which means reusable rubbish. “I get a lot of treasures from bikya,” Mr. Naguib, an artist and collector, says from his garage, which is stuffed with old furniture, vintage advertisements, and stacks of papers and photographs from the early 20th century.

• 

Amgad Naguib buys and sells bikya - roughly, reusable rubbish - from his packed Cairo space.

Frederick Deknatal

Between the vendors who buy and sell junk and the tourist shops that offer overpriced historical keepsakes – Iraqi 
dinars with Saddam Hussein’s face, fake old photographs, faded postcards – there are other Egyptian collectors, artists, and historians collecting pieces of the past, and not always for profit. Accumulating old objects, whether valuable or not, suggests connection with downtown Cairo’s material past as the area 
undergoes major changes, from the flight of historic institutions to news of investment-driven gentrification. . . .

Read the rest of this article in the The Christian Science Monitor

Egypt deports MP George Galloway

From The Independent

George Galloway was deported from Cairo today despite wanting to return to Gaza to help members of a humanitarian convoy who have reportedly been arrested, a spokeswoman for the convoy said.

Plain clothes police officers bundled the Respect MP on to a plane bound for London, said a spokeswoman for the Viva Palestina convoy.

Read the entire story on The Independent

Dozens hurt in Egypt-Gaza clashes

From BBC

An Egyptian soldier has been killed and at least eight Palestinians hurt in clashes at the Egypt-Gaza border.

Egyptian security officials said the soldier was hit by Palestinian gunfire from across the border, during protests over a delayed aid convoy.

International activists have been trying to take 200 aid trucks into the blockaded Gaza Strip, but Egypt has refused some of the vehicles access.

Dozens of activists were hurt during protests over the convoy on Tuesday.

The violence broke out as hundreds of Palestinians began throwing stones across the border at Egyptian security forces, who fired back at the protesters.

The Islamist militant movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, had called the demonstration over the convoy.

But Hamas police later fired into the air to disperse the crowd, witnesses said.

The Egyptian soldier was apparently killed by gunfire from the Gazan side.

Egypt and Israel impose a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip, which Israel says is aimed at weakening Hamas.

The activists said 60 people were hurt in the clashes

The Viva Palestina aid convoy, carrying items ranging from heart monitors to clothing and dental equipment, is aiming to break the blockade.

A spokeswoman for the group of about 500 international activists said the Egyptians had gone back on an agreement to allow their 200 aid trucks to enter.

Alice Howard said Egypt had said that dozens of the trucks would have to enter via an Israeli-controlled checkpoint - which Viva Palestina believed meant the goods would never reach their destination.

She said she understood the reason was because of the nature of some of the goods.

Items other than basic foodstuffs and medicines, such as medical machinery, are subject to a stringent approvals procedure, usually negotiated by established international aid organisations with the Israeli authorities.

Port protest

Some of the activists staged a sit-in at the port of Al-Arish, where the trucks are currently waiting, which was broken up by some 2,000 Egyptian riot police, Ms Howard said.

Many of those injured were "quite severely beaten, with head injuries", she said. A few were taken to hospital, but returned to the convoy on Wednesday morning.

Several Egyptian security forces were also reported to have been injured.

Television footage showed Egyptian riot police hitting the activists with batons. Some of the activists responded by throwing stones.

UK MP George Galloway, with the convoy, said: "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza."

The clashes follow an earlier row with the Egyptian authorities over what route the convoy should take to reach Egypt in the first place.

A demonstration has also been held in the Syrian capital, Damascus, against Egypt's treatment of the aid convoy.

A few hundred people took part in the protest organised by Hamas and other factions in Syria.

Vanished Persian army found in Egyptian desert?

When we were in Siwa, we heard the tales of the Persian army that was headed to Siwa over two and a half thousand years ago, in search of the temple of Amun, that was cursed and were killed by a sandstorm in the middle of the desert. No one knew if they lost their way or what had actually happenned to them.

Now Italian Researchers claim to have found the remains of the army.

Read the whole story here on msnbc

BBC Video Report on Black Cloud in Cairo

A very informative and balanced? report about the black Cloud Hanging over Cairo right now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8324024.stm

That itchy feeling in your throat right now is more likely due to the pollution in the air right now than Swine flu. Take care of your health, the best you can, given the situation.

Time Out visits Luxor

Time out is a magazine that I do enjoy picking up in every country that I visit.

Was pleasantly suprised to see Luxor featured in Time Out Dubai.

Here's the Article.

ET Story on The Abu Simbel Relocation

On the occassion of the 50th Anniversary of the relocation of the Abu Simbel temples to rescue them from the rising Nile waters (due to the construction of the High Dam) Egypt Today has published an article on the story.

Although the article seems a bit biased, it does throw up some fascinating insights like, how the seams in the temple façades and inner walls were filled in with epoxy resin and rock dust collected during the carving process, giving the surfaces a natural, uncut look.

Dangerous Driving in Cairo

Anyone who has lived or visited CAiro, knows how dangerous the roads can be. But its sometimes difficult to explain how bad it is to folks back home.

Voila, BBC produces a video on the topic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7904171.stm?lss

This will give the folks back home something to think about.

Horrific Expereince of a British family visitng Sharm el Sheikh on Holiday

From The Electric New Paper

Treat this as a cautionary tale, but hope for the best, if you plan to travel into Egypt shortly, especially if you have a Mexico stamp in your passport.

THEY expected a great family holiday in Egypt - and encountered fear instead.
14 May 2009

THEY expected a great family holiday in Egypt - and encountered fear instead.

British engineer Stewart Harbut, his pregnant wife Sasha and their four young children, aged between 2 and 8, had a hellish time when armed guards held them in quarantine.

They claim Egyptian guards, in what was seen as an act of panic in the midst of a possible Influenza A (H1N1) virus outbreak, 'pinned them down' at the country's Sharm El Sheikh International Hospital while doctors forced them to give swabs.

Mr Harbut, 37, told Sky News Online that his family spent £6,000 ($13,400) on their holiday.

But as soon as he and his family arrived at Sharm El Shiek airport, their holiday was anything but enjoyable.

He said: 'We were queuing up with the rest of the holidaymakers, looking forward to the break. All of a sudden, we were surrounded by armed guards and police. There must have been about 30.

'All the kids were crying, my wife was crying and I could not believe it. It felt like something out of a drug-smuggling film.'

Guns

Mr Harbut said he and his family saw guns trained on them as they were bundled into the back of a van and sent to the hospital with a police escort.

He thought his family was singled out because their passports showed they had visited Mexico six months ago.

Mr Harbut said he was promised that he and his family would be released in a few hours, but instead, they were held in a dusty room with just five beds.

He said: 'The kids were pinned down and instruments were put down their throats. The Egyptians were in a complete panic.'

When he tried to leave the hospital, he was confronted by three armed guards who blocked his way.

He said: 'There was absolutely no way out - there were large iron gates slammed shut at the front of the hospital and as I walked towards them, three armed guards came towards me holding their guns.'

The Harbuts were only allowed to leave the hospital yesterday after all of the tests were confirmed as negative, nearly 24 hours after landing in Egypt.

Speaking from their Red Sea resort hotel after his release, Mr Harbut said he had been treated like a drug smuggler.

He said: 'This was absolute hell. We're just hoping that the kids aren't too traumatised.'

Mr Harbut wanted to warn travellers about the current level of panic over the H1N1 virus in the country.

Egyptian marriage fatwa causes stir

As you can see, I have a little time to catch up on some newspaper reading for about 24 hours and I am sharing the most interesting of the lot.

From The National Newspaper:
Dar al Iftaa, an authoritative Islamic research institute in Cairo headed by Egypt’s grand mufti, just passed a fatwa condoning a controversial form of marriage called “Misyar”, in which a bride forgoes typical premarital financial commitments from her would-be husband.

There are two sides to this argument. One being that this is a way to legalise prostitution, the other saying that this will allow some of the poorer sections of society who cannot afford the shabka and other financial requirements thrust upon them during a wedding (not living expenses) to still get married (. . . and maybe reduce some of the sexual frustration, which sometimes manifests on the roads)

Read the entire article here:

A friend also forwarded an interesting link that relates to this fatwa.
Misyaar Marriage in Saudi Arabia – What is it and Who would Want It?

Islamic hip hop, or a load of hype?

The article is a bit dated (22 April), but I just got to it and thought that it would interest those who read this blog.

From The BBC.

A satellite channel has launched in Egypt claiming to be the first Islamic MTV.

The studio presenter takes viewers' phone calls and interviews artists in baggy jeans, while music videos are played. . .

. . . 4Shbab aims to promote traditional Islamic values through hip hop, rap and pop music, using new and established artists whose lyrics and visuals address Islamic themes. . . .

What follows in the article; is an interesting snap shot of a debate on the pros and cons of such a channel. An interesting read, for sure.

Galabeyya to become National Dress of Egypt?

Egyptian MP Mustapha al-Gindy wants the Galabeya to be recognised as Egypt's National Dress.

"In Egypt, if you wear a galabeyya, you might find yourself barred from 70% of public places. This is both unconstitutional and inhuman."

. . . What he calls "the war against the galabeyya" has resulted in other costumes coming to prominence and he believes threatening the national identity. . .

. . . And he wants Egyptians to wear their own national galabeyya with pride when they travel abroad, instead of adopting the local variations.

While some MPs wear the galabeyya in the Majlis or parliament, Mr Gindy says you will only see Saudi tourists in their national dress at places such as the opera house or up-market hotels. . .

Read the Entire article on BBC.

It will be interesting to see how he plans to go about getting the Galabeyya its National Status and even more interesting to see what happens once it gets national status.

I know of restaurants that have a No-Galabeyya policy and deny entry to those males dressed in this ankle length gown. (Most of the restaurants that have this policy also serve alcohol and also try to restrict entry to veiled women - purportedly to not offend the religious sentiments of those who are seen as being more religious - simply by virtue of their clothing)

Would they be able to deny entry to those clad in galabeyyas, once it is declared the national dress?

In my home country India, men wearing the traditional dress of a dhothi, a lungi, a mundu, or sometimes even kurta pyjama are denied entry into certain settings, even though these items of clothing are worn by members of parliament when they go about their political meetings. Women's Traditional dresses, on the other hand, are still commonly worn and have never been used as an excuse for denying them entry anywhere.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses.

Cairo Traffic Commentary on the BBC

From The BBC

Christian Fraser discovers that a brush with death on Cairo's congested roads leaves no appetite for life in the fast lane.

Life in Cairo is a do or die race, in which you trample or are trampled. . .

. . . Modern Cairo was built to house four million people. It has now swelled to some 17 million which is why narrow two-way streets on the banks of the River Nile, are by 0900 local time transformed into four-lane carriageways. . .

. . .For a country that invented precision-engineered pyramids, its taxis are primitive, in all the wrong ways.

The upholstery of my taxi was the cheap nylon kind that delivers electric shocks to sweaty thighs. . .

. . . Ironically, the congestion that had brought us to this standstill was formed of rubberneckers, craning to look at the grisly aftermath of a five-car pile up on the other side. . .


Read the Entire Article here.


Thanks Rhonda for steering me towards this article.

A Woman's place in the Mosque?

Camel, of PTP brought this article to my attention.

Its from the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7915393.stm

Your thoughts?

Mummy of female pharaoh uncovered

From BBC

The discovery of such an old mummy is extremely rare, Egyptologists say Egyptologists have discovered the remains of a mummy thought to belong to a queen who ruled 4,300 years ago, Egypt's antiquities chief has said. The body of Queen Seshestet was found in a recently-discovered pyramid in Saqqara, Zahi Hawass announced. She was mother of King Teti, founder of the Sixth Dynasty of pharaonic Egypt. Her name was not found but "all the signs indicate that she is Seshestet". Such old royal mummies are rare. Most date from dynasties after 1800 BC. Historians believe Queen Seshestet ruled Egypt for 11 years - making her one of a small number of women pharaohs. It took five hours to lift the lid of a sarcophagus, according to a statement by Mr Hawass. It contained a skull, legs, pelvis, other body parts wrapped in linen, pottery and gold finger wrappings. The burial chamber was raided in antiquity by grave robbers who stole everything, including most valuables from inside the sarcophagus.

Street Food in Egypt

ET came out with a wonderful article on eating out in Egypt this month.

Street Food Done Right
Looking to eat local? Here’s our guide to some of the best places for fuul, koshari, kofta and molokheyya in the city
By Ali El Bahnasawy

A mouth-watering, homemade Egyptian dish is one of a few things that remain on your mind when you leave the country. Along with memories of joking over shisha at a baladi café and those all-night celebrations after an Ahly versus Zamalek match, your mind can’t help but return to the taste of traditional Egyptian cuisine.

Unsurprisingly, Egyptian food is just like Egyptian people: it has many layers. From eats as simple as fuul and tameya, to grilled kebabs and stuffed leaves or fatta (a dish of toasted bread, rice, and meat), Egyptian food has something for everyone. And the best place to find that something is Cairo.

The star of local restaurants offering fine dining Egyptian style is, without a doubt, Abou El-Sid. Posing as a posh fifties dining room from Cairo’s heyday, each restaurant is decorated with colored walls and huge chandeliers, artwork and kitsch fifties-style trinkets. The menu of appetizers, main dishes and desserts is simple but full: Food portions are huge so be careful what you order. The kobeiba comes with baba ghanoug, hitting two birds with one stone, while the stuffed vine leaves with peppermint and yogurt dressing are superb.

Abou El-Sid’s main dishes reflect the general atmosphere. Molokheyya with rice and rabbit is an ultra-traditional dish that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in town. I don’t know how you feel about paying LE 18 for koshari but if you want to live the experience, expect to pay accordingly.

A newcomer to the Egyptian dining scene is El-Sit Hosneya in Dokki, an Egyptian-Moroccan blend that is comfy but expensive. The menu is similar to Abou El-Sid, but offers eight — yes, eight — different types of fatta. Try the one with the molokheyya. Another option, Kan Zaman in Heliopolis, offers live music and quicker service and equally tasty food, if El-Sid and El-Sit are packed.

If you’re low on cash, you’re in luck. Egyptian cuisine is famous for being both inexpensive and filling. El-Tekkia’s main dishes are between LE 25–55 and the collection of appetizers appeals to those on a budget as well.

If it’s meat you’re looking for, look no further. Egyptians love their grilled meats, from kebab to kofta, chicken and pigeon. Kebab and kofta are the specialties of El-Refaay in Sayeda Zeinab, where seating is in an alley crowded with old wooden chairs and tables. There is always a crowd, and when the bill comes, you’ll understand why all the cars parked in the alley are expensive ones.

For diehard fans of koshari — a famous and unique mix of rice, black lentils, macaroni, fried onion and hot tomato sauce — there’s no shortage of options. But make sure you’re able to pick out the good ones. While the painstakingly commercial Abu Tariq Downtown is known for its celeb visitors, head out to Heliopolis for Koshary Hend. Expect to share a table as a result of the crowds, or ask for a foiled to-go plate and you’ll be full for hours on less than LE 5.

On the other side of Cairo, in Imbaba, is the best destination for cow and camel liver, arguably in the country. El-Brince, an Arabic transliteration for The Prince, is also an excellent outdoor venue in a traditional, crowded Cairo neighborhood. The walls are adorned with photos of the restaurant owner and a gaggle of Egyptian celebrities — certainly a testament to El-Brince’s good food. For the uninitiated, start with the cow liver. The grilled oriental sausage is made with a special sauce that is unmatchable. The molokheyya comes from a specialized cart at the corner of the restaurant and is one of the best in town. Because of its location and service — quick, but impersonal — many expect El-Brince to be cheap. It’s not. Expect to pay no less than LE 50–70, but know that it’s well worth it.

The Details

Abou El-Sid 45 Road 7 Maadi, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2380-5050 www.abouelsid.com Open 1pm – 2am every day Other branches in Zamalek, Mohandiseen and CityStars in Nasr City

Khaled Habib

El Sit Hosneya 47 Michel Bakhoum St.Dokki, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 3338-6007 Open 10am – 2am every day

Kan Zaman 80A El-Thawra St. Heliopolis, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2417-0953 Open 10am – 2am every day

El-Brince 79 Taalat Harb St. Ommal City Imbaba, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 3311-6265 Open 4pm – 2am, every day

Koshary Hend 5 El-Thawra St.Heliopolis, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2418-3946 Open 24 hours, every day

El-Refaay 5 Mongy Alley El-Darb El-Gedeed Sayeda Zeinab, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2392-6159 / 2390-6996 Open 7pm – 3am every day

El-Tekkia 105 Hegaz St.Heliopolis, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2638 4343 Open 1pm – 2am, every day

Fuul Me Up

Mashed mudammas beans, best known as fuul, is probably Egypt’s most prevalent dish. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s a mainstay of the national diet, and can be found everywhere from fuul carts in Imbaba to posh restaurants in Heliopolis. And because of that, Egyptians have mastered the art of preparing fuul dishes of every type. Here are a few ingredients to add a little flavor to your fuul for little money:

Plain with oil, Egg and tomato, Lemon and red pepper, Sweet potato, Mint, Beef, Cheese, Carrot and cucumber, Pastrami

From The New York Times

Arabic Lessons

By ROBERT F. WORTH

One dark afternoon last winter, after too many hours spent studying Arabic verbs, I found myself staring uncomprehendingly at a video on my computer screen. An Arab man was holding forth tediously, his words half drowned by the rain outside. At first all I could make out was the usual farrago of angry consonants and strangled vowels. No progress there. Then, at last, the letters lighted up at the back of my brain.

“I understand what he’s saying!” I shrieked to the empty apartment, spinning backward in my desk chair. “I understand every word!”

I felt a warm rush of gratitude to the speaker, a bespectacled doctor. It made no difference that he was Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s No. 2 man, or that he was threatening to slaughter large numbers of Americans. He spoke a slow, clear fusha, the formal version of Arabic I had been struggling to decipher on the page for 10 hours a day. Even better, his words matched my limited vocabulary: arsala, “to send”; jaish, “army”; raees, “president.” I was almost drunk with exhilaration.

Moments later the darkness dropped again. The terrorist disappeared, his rarefied language replaced by the clipped, quotidian accents of a political analyst. This was closer to the ordinary Arabic I would need for my work, and I understood precisely nothing. Was I wasting my time?

Learning Arabic has been like that: moments of elation alternating with grim, soul-churning despair. The language is not so much hard as it is vast, with dozens of ways to form the plural and words that vary from region to region, town to town. With every sign of progress it seems to deepen beneath you like a coastal shelf. It is only small comfort to read about the early struggles of distinguished Arabists like Gertrude Bell, who complained that she could pronounce the Arabic “h” only while holding down her tongue with one finger, or Tim Mackintosh-Smith, who writes of years spent in an alternate world called “Dictionary Land.”

But the rigors of study were a small price for the chance to catch up with my surroundings. After spending the better part of two years as a reporter in Baghdad, I was tired of playing the doltish Westerner, eyes always darting blankly between translator and interviewee. The scattered phrases I knew seemed only to underscore my ignorance: Wayn alinfijar? I’d say (“Where’s the explosion?”), or Shaku maku? (“How’s it going?”), and I’d get a condescending pat on the back. When my bosses offered a year of intensive language training, I jumped at the chance.

For anyone who knows only European languages, to wade into Arabic is to discover an endlessly strange and yet oddly ordered lexical universe. Some words have definitions that go on for pages and seem to encompass all possible meanings; others are outlandishly precise. Paging through the dictionary one night, I found a word that means “to cut off the upper end of an okra.” There are lovely verbs like sara, “to set out at night”; comical ones like tabaadawa, “to pose as a Bedouin”; and simply bizarre ones like dabiba, “to abound in lizards.” Dabiba (presumably applied to towns or regions) is medieval, but I wouldn’t put it past Dr. Zawahri to revive it.

The language can also be surprisingly vague to a Western ear. I was always troubled by Arabic’s tendency to elide the distinction between “a lot” and “too much.” I will never forget hearing an Iraqi friend, as we walked down a crowded Brooklyn street together, say loudly in English, “There are too many black people here.”

At the same time, all Arabic words have simple three- or four-letter roots, with systematically derived cognates that allow you to unfold a whole range of meanings from a single word. The word for “to cook,” for instance, is related in a predictable way to the words for “kitchen,” “dish,”

“chef,” and so on. Arabic speakers are often dismayed to discover that the same principle is less common in English.

As the months passed, the sounds of the language were gradually transformed. Arabic’s hard “h” letter, so difficult to pronounce at first, began to seem like a lovely breath of air, as if countless tiny parachutes were lifting the words above their glottal base. The notorious “ayn” sound, which often takes months for English speakers to produce, lost its guttural edge and acquired, to my ear, the throaty rumble of a well-tuned sports car.

Soon I began marching into the Arabic markets on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, near where I live, and testing out my textbook phrases. Generally I was met with a confused look and then a smiling apology: “We don’t hear too much fusha around here.” Linguistically speaking, what I had done was a bit like asking an Italian for directions in Latin. Modern fusha, also known as Modern Standard Arabic, is a modified version of the Classical Arabic in the Koran. It is the language of public address, and of any newscast on Al Jazeera and other Arabic television stations. It also corresponds to the written language, and any educated Arab can understand it. Arabs have enormous respect for fusha (“eloquent” is the word’s literal meaning), especially in its fully inflected Koranic form; that is why Al Qaeda’s leaders, like clerics and most political leaders, place great emphasis on the classical idiom.

But the language of the street is different. The colloquial versions of Arabic are derived from fusha, and they are dialects rather than wholly separate languages. Still, the gulf can be substantial in vocabulary as well as pronunciation, and takes getting used to.

One of the pleasures of learning Arabic is hearing long-familiar words in their natural context, shorn of the poisonous ideological garb they often bear in this country. Once you begin to do that, American attitudes toward the language itself, along with all things Arab and Muslim, can begin to seem jarringly hostile and suspicious.

To take a recent example: Last winter, New York City announced plans for a new Arabic-language public secondary school in Brooklyn. An aggressive campaign against the school soon sprang up, despite the uncontroversial presence of Chinese, Russian, Spanish and other dual-language schools in the city. Opponents and local newspaper columnists began branding the (as yet unopened) school a “jihad recruiting center” and a “madrassa” and demanding it be closed. For Arabic speakers, the very title of the “Stop the Madrassa” campaign — now national in scope — is bound to have an uncomfortable ring. Madrassa is the Arabic word for “school”; it could not be more wholesome. But as the school’s opponents know, in this country it has taken on a far more sinister valence, thanks to press reports about religious schools in Pakistan that are said to teach Taliban-style militancy. The school’s principal was later replaced after a fracas over another Arabic word, intifada, that has taken on a meaning here entirely different from the one it has among Arabs.

One has to wonder whether these attitudes have inhibited our ability to train more Arabic speakers. Although enrollments in postsecondary Arabic study more than doubled from 2002 to 2006, the attrition rate is high, and the number of students who persist and become truly proficient — much harder to measure — is very small. The government and military are still struggling to find the translators they need.

The reasons for this failure are many, and inseparable from the Arab world’s long history of troubled relations with the West. But alongside them is the simple fact that even with the best of teachers — like mine — the language requires a degree of patience and commitment that verges on the absurd. “Don’t worry,” one of my teachers told me half-jokingly. “Arabic is only hard for the first 10 years. After that it gets easier.”

Robert F. Worth is the Beirut bureau chief for The Times.