This is a cross-post by Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi, reprinted with the permission of FrontPage Magazine.
I have come to realize just how difficult it may be to decipher news about the Middle East, Islam, Israel, the Arab World, and all these powerful and explosive issues of our times for those who rely on such media stalwarts as The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the major television networks, cable news, etc. for their information. For example, how is a person to ascertain whether the slayer of a family is a terrorist or a militant or a gunman or an assailant or an activist or a freedom-fighter?
So, purely as a public service, I have organized the following glossary of the most pertinent terms and expressions, as typically used in the above-mentioned news sources. I hope, insha’allah, the reader will find it helpful to unravel the Gordian Knot of language that is today’s (and yesterday’s and tomorrow’s) Middle East!
Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi holds the Edward Said-Noam Chomsky Linguistics Chair at Abdul Abulbul Amir University in Cairo.
************************************
Aggression: Killing people who are trying to kill you.
Al Qaeda: the terrorist group that, according to American security sources, embodies the world-wide Islamist movement, and that is either “significantly degraded” or is still “extremely dangerous,” depending on which government official is doing the talking.
Apartheid: The political/social system of the one and only country in the Middle East that integrates Jews, Beduins, Arabs, whites, blacks, Muslems, Ethiopians, Russians, Christians, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Bahai, et al.
“Apes & Pigs”: See “Jew” below.
Arab Emir: Military dictator.
Arab King: Military dictator.
Arab President: Military dictator.
Arab Prime Minister: Military dictator.
Arab Spring: Replacement of one dictatorship with another, with the help of Western money and media cheerleading.
Arab Street: Enraged mobs chanting and screaming their hatred, determined to annihilate Israel and the Jews. They can often be seen burning American and Israeli flags, passing out candies and firing guns into the air in response to successful murders of Westerners (closely related to):
Arab Humiliation: The pervasive feeling on the Arab street generated by their failure to annihilate Israel and the Jews in several wars. Many opinion-makers, Middle East experts and op-ed writers argue that Arab humiliation is at the root of the Middle East conflict; i.e., “If only the Jews would let themselves be destroyed, the Arab street would feel better about themselves, and then there would be peace.”
Ayatola: Persian dictator. Spiritual leader of that faith that desires to ignite nuclear holocaust in order to bring about the arrival of the Mahdi. (See “Mahdi” below.)
Bias: An expression of support for the existence of Israel.
Caliphate: The unification of lands ruled in the name of Islam, ruled by a Caliph. (See “Arab King,” “Arab President,” etc. above.)
Compromise: To give something palpable, such as land, in return for a promise not to keep on trying to annihilate you.
Developing Country: A country that is not developing.
Disproportionate Response: Winning.
Diversity: The condition in which all cultures are viewed as equally and inherently virtuous, except for the culture of the West, which is viewed as evil by virtue of imperialism, colonialism and endemic racism (see “Racist” below).
Emergency Laws: The law.
Father of the Palestinian People: An Egyptian man, raised by his uncle, Hitler’s buddy, and one of the world’s most successful kleptocrats. (See “PLO” below.)
Fatwa: A pronouncement of a mullah that sanctions murder, but only of disagreeable people, like inadequately covered women, Salman Rushdie, etc.
Female Genital Mutilation: That ritual of which Western feminist organizations seem, by virtue of their silence, to approve.
Hamas: The democratically elected government of Gaza whose founding charter calls for genocide.
Hezbollah: The democratic group whose purpose is saving Lebanon from Israeli aggression, and whose founding charter calls for genocide.
History: Having nothing whatsoever to do with what has actually happened, but rather being what has come to be called “narrative,” i.e., “storytelling.” For one example, allusions to the “Ancient Nation of Palestine;” and for another, almost all the Muslem accomplishments President Obama enumerated in his momentous Cairo speech (also see “Rewriting History” below).
Holocaust: That genocide that did not happen, but that the Jews orchestrated in order to steal Arab land, and that of which the Jewish presence in Palestine is worse than.
Honor Killings: The cultural imperative to murder one’s daughter/sister/niece for humiliating male members…(see “Shariah” below).
Human Rights: The credo by which murder committed by a person from a country which used to be called “Third World” (now considered racist terminology) is good (see “Resistance” below); retaliatory killing by a person who is either from a developed country, a white person or most especially a Jew, is bad (see “Agression” above).
Human Shields: Integral part of Hamas & Hezbollah military strategy.
Islamic Republic: Military dictatorship.
Israel: Occupied territory (see “Zionist Entity” below).
Israeli Prime Minister: Hawkish, right-winger, hard-liner.
Jerusalem: City holy to Islam in which the Jews have no history.
Jew: The source of all decadence and evil in the world; descendent of apes and pigs.
Jihad: The inner spiritual struggle for self-purification or the bloody military struggle for world domination depending on to which journalist and in what language one is speaking.
Judeo-Christian Values: The credo of that civilization which has lost all its values, except for that racism is bad, and diversity is good.
Koran: The book that was revealed word-for-word to the Prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) by the Angel Gabriel…or not.
Leftist: Supporter of PLO (see “PLO” below) and Hamas (see “Hamas” above) and Muslem Brotherhood (see “Muslem Brotherhood” below).
Mahdi: The Shia Messiah who has been hiding for centuries at the bottom of a well.
Martyr: Someone who kills someone else while killing himself, said to be rewarded for his martyrdom by the acquisition of 72 virgins upon his arrival in Paradise, at least according to what the Prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) said the Angel Gabriel told him (see “Koran” above).
Militant, Assailant, Gunman, Activist: terrorist.
Moderate Palestinian Leader: Former KGB operative, Holocaust denier, and financier of Munich Olympic massacre.
Mosque: A place for the storage of armaments.
Muslem Brotherhood: A mostly secular and non-violent political party in Egypt.
Occupation: Jewish presence in disputed territory. (See “Israel” above.)
Peace: War of attrition.
Peace Process: The dismantling of Israel.
Peace Talks: The avoidance of peace.
PLO: Organization created in 1964 to end the 1967 occupation.
Palestinian Authority: The world’s most successful kleptocracy.
Palestinian Hero: Murderer of children.
Palestinian Prime Minister: Moderate, bold (see “Arab Prime Minister” above).
Protocols of the Elders of Zion: The authentic Jewish playbook for world domination.
Racist: A person who disagrees with or does not like or does not support the reelection of President Obama.
Radical Islamic Movement: A group whose stated official goal is genocide (see “Hamas” and “Hezbollah” above).
Recognition: A truce until the next time.
Refugee: Someone who has refused to take refuge, or who has not been allowed to take refuge.
“Religion of Peace”: That civilization with which the Judeo-Christian civilization is locked in a war to the death.
Resistance: Randomly killing civilians, especially children.
Rewriting History: See “History” above.
Right: Demand to live in Israel by people who hate it and wish to destroy it.
of Return: By people very, very few of whom have ever actually been there.
Settlement: An illegal community made up of settlers. (See “Settler” below.)
Settler: Someone who builds his house in order to thwart any chance at making peace between Jews and Palestinians.
Shariah: The Islamic system of jurisprudence which codifies and dignifies rape, child marriage, specific classes of murder such as honor killings (see “Honor Killings” above), etc.
Shia: People who are certain that Sunnis are not real Muslems, and are in fact infidels, and should therefore be slaughtered.
Sunni: People who are certain that Shia are not real Muslems, and are in fact infidels, and should therefore be slaughtered.
War Crime: Retaliation and defense. Any action whose intent is victory.
War on Terror: Pretense that the enemy of the West is made up of small, shadowy groups motivated by childhood poverty (see “Al Qaeda” above). (“We’re depraved on account of we’re deprived” — apologies to S. Sondheim.)
Zionism: The ideology of the Jews who aspire to control, dominate and take over the world.
Zionist: Someone who is worse than a Nazi.
Zionist Entity: That place that does not exist, as on Arab maps, but that must be destroyed.
