Metafilter has an interesting thread today about plans by the Southern Baptists to send missionaries to Iraq after the war: “Two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations said Tuesday that they have teams of workers poised to enter Iraq to address the physical and spiritual needs of a large Muslim population.” I think the interesting question […]
Monthly Archives: March 2003
Malay Contributions to English, pt 2
With the war in mind, here is the next installment: Amok, usually seen as “run amok”. It tends to be used in English to mean out of control, but the dictionary meaning is the same in English as it is in Malay: In a frenzy to kill; in a violent rage; bloodlust; berserk Let’s use […]
Clash of Little Plastic Army Men
If I’m going to buy my child war toys, I can’t really get hung up on the real-world parallels. Either it’s make-believe or it isn’t, right? Still, I swallowed hard when I looked at the sticker set for these green and gray soldiers. I wonder when it was exactly that little plastic army men went […]
City of Barking Dogs
In the city of Detroit, dogs may outnumber people. Packs of wild dogs roam and reproduce in the empty areas of the city. The block I grew up on had a dog or two in every yard except ours. I didn’t hold anything against dogs as a kid, except for the incessant barking. The dogs […]
Paleface
In Indonesia, I’m told, bule is a common nickname for foreigners. That’s not really in use over here that I can tell (maybe it is, just not to my face). What I get called most often is orang putih, white man. It’s not the least bit derogatory, and I don’t mind being referred to that way. I never […]
Old Sister Bird
The Malaysian language, Bahasa Malaysia, has contributed a small but interesting number of words to English. I’d like to start an occasional series on them, starting with the Cockatoo. Now, many of you may first think of an irritating pop band, but that’d be the Cocteau Twins. The Cockatoo is a parrot-like bird found here […]
Jew Huggers
Check out this new online magazine, the Muslim WakeUp. I stumbled across it thanks to AltMuslim, with whom it shares some contributors. It’s a riot. Far and away the best thing in it is the Hug-a-Jew column, where MWU staff interview and hug noteworthy Jews. I also liked the article The Islaam of Double Vowels […]
Sultans of the South China Sea
Anak_Alam has been busy, quietly posting some excellent articles to his site. He has a summary history of the spread of Islam through the Malay Archipelago that is a fascinating read. He also casually dropped an essay and a half on the Sultanates of the region in my comments section, which really ought to be […]