Hello Johanna,

JR> The use of 'crusade' was quite unfortunate, from my viewpoint.
JR> Europeans and Americans don't realize how much meaning the ancient
JR> conflict between Christian Europe and the Islamic countries still
JR> has for residents of the Arab world. It is a very salient part of
JR> their appreciation of their own history and culture.

I didn't hear him say that, but friends complained to me about it
yesterday. I told them that Bush probably had not prepared his
statement and said the first thing that came into his head.

I haven't seen it reported in the Arabic press either, and I wonder
what they might say. "Crusade" is normally used in English to mean a
vigorous campaign of any description. The Arabic word for this is
"hamlah", and this word covers roughly the same semantic fields as
crusade, military and moral.

"The Crusades", however, refer to a series of wars that were of minor
significance to the Arab and Muslim worlds but provided the
quintessential and defining experience of modern Western civilization.
It is for this reason that Westerners continue mythically to refer to
these wars and their culture in a kind of collective birth memory.

These Crusades to "liberate" the Holy Land are known as "al-huruub
al-Salibiyyah", "the wars of the cross". Pope Urban II's address at
Chartres launching them almost a millennium ago is framed in language
that is hauntingly familiar today.

Many Arabs know some English and often watch the American TV news on
satellite. When they hear Bush say "crusade" I imagine that many
understand "Crusade" in this second sense.

Omar

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