![](\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/muslim_quote.jpg\")
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
My heart really goes out to journalists charged with the daunting task of getting to the bottom of the neverending mayhem of the Middle East and Muslim world. The region\u2019s confusing and disturbing twists and turns are only made ever more inscrutable by the baffling way Muslims talk. Their perplexing words make it even harder for normal people to make sense of the screaming headlines we read every day reporting the latest outbreak of violence, irrationality, or hatred over there. But it needn\u2019t be quite so confusing.<\/p>\n
What few outsiders realize, however, is that there are a number of closely guarded secrets among Muslims that once grasped explain all sorts of bizarre political and social phenomena that otherwise appear inexplicable. Once you realize that the rules of common sense don\u2019t apply to Muslims, most of these mysteries are solved. In the hopes of making the jobs of America\u2019s overworked journalists and pundits a bit easier, I\u2019m going to share a few of the most important rules for understanding Muslim language:<\/p>\n
Rule 1: Muslims always speak truthfully and literally\u2026<\/b> Muslims always mean exactly what they say and in as literally a sense as possible. It\u2019s a commonly known fact that all Muslims are born with (or acquire instantly upon conversion) dazzling, Ciceronian eloquence and supercomputer-like minds that allow them to effortlessly think through the political, social and theological implications of even the most off-the-cuff observation down to the smallest detail. As a result, Muslims never say things they don\u2019t mean in the heat of the moment, use ambiguous language that has to be judged by its context, or generally misspeak in any way. <\/p>\n
At the same time, since the concepts of metaphor, exaggerations, or dramatic license are Western innovations that have yet to reach the lands of Rumi, Al-Ghazzali, and expressions like \u201cThe Mother of all Battles\u201d, Muslims always speak literally. Literally.<\/p>\n
Ergo, if a Pakistani American Red Sox fan in Boston exclaims, \u201cDamn those Yankees!\u201d, it is possible that he dislikes the New York Yankees, but his aim in speaking is to issue a fatwah on the final fate of all that baseball team\u2019s members. When a Muslim exclaims to a friend, \u201cMan, I\u2019m gonna kill you!\u201d he is not expressing anger or frustration but rather informing his associate of the latter\u2019s imminent death. And when a Muslim states that a movie \u201cbombed\u201d, he has no intention of conveying that the film did poorly at the box office or that it failed to meet his expectations as a moviegoer. He is reporting (happily\u3ce5 Rule 4) that the film literally exploded in a fiery cataclysm in the theater, presumably maiming if not killing many innocent bystanders.<\/p>\n
Rule 2: \u2026except when they\u2019re lying to trick you.<\/b> There is an exception to Rule 1, namely when a Muslim states anything which is modern, enlightened, politically moderate or generally inspiring. <\/p>\n
Muslims are deceitful by nature and come into the world hardwired with the most abhorrent and alien of values. (Just like those cunning Jews!) Consequently, the most reliable method of determining a Muslim\u2019s beliefs when he is saying something you agree with is to disregard his words and instead consider what views a civilized, modern person would hold on the topic in question. Then choose the opposite approach, no matter how chilling, seemingly implausible, or strenuously denied the reading is and you have the answer.<\/p>\n
Wondering whether Palestinians consider their children disposable cannon fodder<\/a> for jihad against the Jews? Don\u2019t waste your time analyzing their circumstances. Do normal people love and protect their children from harm? There you have it. Palestinians clearly don\u2019t love or care about protecting their children.<\/p>\n Also, it goes without saying that there is no such thing as a Muslim apology or change of heart.<\/p>\n Rule 3: Muslim words apply to all times and places.<\/b> A fact that has long puzzled linguists is how the phenomenon discussed in Rule 1 applies to all circumstances and places. Muslim utterances retain their meaning, intent and political significance in translation \u2013 regardless of the translation\u2019s quality and even when a translation of translation is involved \u2013 and regardless of the historical and cultural circumstances to which they are transplanted. <\/p>\n Thus, the aforementioned malediction against the New York Yankees can not only be translated word for word into any human language without introducing any misunderstandings, but its theological commentary can be applied not only to fellow believers in an afterlife such as Christians and Jews, but also to atheists in New York, Wiccans in California, Shintoists in Japan, and Yuruba animists in southwestern Nigeria. Don\u2019t fret about authorial intent or context\u2013he\u2019s a Muslim, so he thought it all through for you before saying a word.<\/p>\n Rule 4: Deep down, Muslims are always thinking about (and yearning for) violence.<\/b> Muslims are by nature warlike and inclined to violence, so physically harming other people is never absent from their minds, regardless of the topic under discussion. In cases where they endeavor to conceal this fact, you need to just strap \u2019em down and break out the lie detector. <\/p>\n Thus, if a Muslim American student activist talks about his personal interpretation of jihad <\/a>(struggle in God\u2019s way) as striving to integrate Islam\u2019s values of justice and service to ones fellow citizens into his daily life as a patriotic American, you can be sure that he is in reality trying to slip in a plug for terrorists who behead and kill plane loads of those same citizens. Similarly, if some graduating Muslims students decide to wear green stoles at graduation<\/a> that read in Arabic Rabbi ziddini ilm<\/i> (\u201cOh Lord, grant me knowledge\u201d, a prayer from the Quran) on one side and the Islamic profession of faith or Shahada<\/i> on the other, these provocateurs are obviously trying to turn their graduation ceremony into a tribute to the Hamas suicide bombers (who are known for wearing black armbands emblazoned with the Shahada<\/i>). Don\u2019t let the fact that Muslims use those prayers in the most mundane of situations \u2013 even before going to bed \u2013 throw you off the scent. <\/p>\n Rule 5: It\u2019s always \u201cjihad\u201d.<\/b> Related to Rule 4 is the fact that any event involving Muslims is always jihad. Not the concept of a peaceful personal struggle to do the right thing that most Muslims, sly foxes that they are, claim to intend when using the word. Nor is it the noble campaigns for good causes that normal, Christian people think of when they talk about \u201ccrusades\u201d. Anything a Muslims does is always violent holy war directed against everyone around them. <\/p>\n Whether they\u2019re pinning prayers to their graduation gowns or just standing by the road licking an ice cream cone, it\u2019s jihad and you\u2019re under siege like the Viennese facing the Ottoman hordes in 1529<\/a>. Don\u2019t let the social economic and political realities of near complete Muslim powerlessness in the modern, Western\/Christian-dominated world distract you from the fact that you are an oppressed Dhimmi<\/a> living under the yoke of Muslim tyranny. <\/p>\n So make sure you pepper your report with the word \u201cjihad\u201d and other buzzwords that remind readers of the mortal peril we all live in thanks to the existence of Islam. Don\u2019t forget to mention medieval Islamic concepts like jizya<\/a>, <\/i>slavery, and, everyone\u2019s favorite, houris<\/i><\/a>. The fact that these concepts are about as relevant to most modern political problems as Danegeld<\/a> is besides the point. Wherever context permits make hysterical allusions to Nazism since that hateful ideology developed in Germany, the heartland of Islamic civilization. (The world still shudders at the memory of their chilling symbol, the dreaded Iron Crescent & Star!) <\/p>\n Finally, always err on the side of innuendo, paranoia and stereotype. Remember that if you can\u2019t think of a good reason for inserting prejudicial language now, someone else will eventually dream up a retroactive justification. And then you\u2019ll be a prophet. <\/p>\n <\/i><\/p>\n