Following the recent controversy over Debbie Almontaser’s initial defense and belated apology over T-shirts printed with the slogan “Intifada NYC,” the Khalil Gibran Academy’s principal resigned from her position on Aug. 10. The episode raises a number of important issues concerning education and the use and abuse of language.
Almontaser was the principal of the first Arabic language public school in New York City, which opened this week. The principal should be concerned with providing students not only with the literal meanings of root words of Arabic, but the historic and contextual meanings of terms and expressions in the language as well. The goal of any educator who hopes to provide his or her students with a command of any language is to ensure that their students learn and appreciate the nuances of language.
Responding to inquiries about the “Intifada NYC” T-shirts, Almontaser referred to the Arabic root of the word, intifad, and initially asserted that the term “intifada” merely meant “shaking off oppression.” That definition was only a piece of the whole picture, however. The word “intifada” has evolved over the past two decades to almost exclusively refer to the armed revolt by Palestinians against Israel that took place from 1987-1993, and concluded with the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Similar use of the term intifada, Al-Aqsa or the “Al-Aqsa Intifada,” named after the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, has been used to refer to the violent breakdown of the Oslo Accords following the 2000 Camp David talks that took place from 2000-2005. The term has become synonymous with the violent attacks and horrific suicide bombings carried out against Israeli civilians by various Palestinian terror factions during both of those periods. Palestinian terror organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades glorified the attackers and suicide bombers as shaheed, or martyrs, of the intifada. As the result of these events, the term intifada has become a word in its own right in current Arabic usage.
This is not the first time that obfuscations of Arabic have been used in public discourse. There are Islamist activists as well as scholars who are sympathetic to the radicals’ cause who ignore the use of the term jihad as it has been used throughout Islamic history. The definition of jihad is a holy war in which Muslims are religiously obliged to participate. Nevertheless, there are those who insist on claiming, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the term jihad can only refer to an individual’s spiritual struggle.
Imam Talib Abdur Rashid of the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood and a member of the advisory board of the Gibran Academy, also obfuscated the meaning of jihad in response to criticism of his mosque’s Web site, which displays the official slogan of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood. It states, “Jihad is our way, and death in the way of Allah is our promised end.” Abdur Rashid asserted that jihad is “much misunderstood and much misused,” and that its definitions refer to struggle. He further contended that the phrase “Death in the way of Allah” is “not referring to killing anyone — just to when our time comes.”
Since 9/11 Americans have repeatedly viewed Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri on their televisions glorifying al Qaeda’s terror attacks against the U.S. while referring to those attacks as their global jihad. From their actions, it is crystal clear that bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri do not define jihad as striving for spiritual enlightenment.
There are similar attempts to obscure the meaning of the term madrassa, which in Islamic tradition and history refers to a school that teaches Islamic theology. In recent times, however, Saudi-funded madrassas in Pakistan and other countries have served as indoctrination and recruiting centers for extremist organizations that promote a jihadist ideology.
These terms and their contexts are and will continue to be important as Americans endeavor to understand the Muslim world and the Muslim community in our midst. And the educational goal of aspiring to provide more students with the opportunity to learn Arabic is a worthy one. But such an endeavor must be accompanied by a dedication to make every effort to present Arabic in both its historical and current context.
Khalil Gibran’s vision of the world included a strong dedication to the truth. He wrote, “Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty and obey only love.” As an educator, the new principal of the Gibran School has an obligation to set an example, consistently inculcating students with a sense of balance and perspective by speaking out against the abuse of language, rather than blurring the meaning of the words themselves. Gibran himself would ask for no less. n
Yehudit Barsky is director of the American Jewish Committee’s Division on Middle East and International Terrorism.
