allah akbar is also something said similar to "God damn it"
also, all religious violence is not terrorism
__________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
he may have been praising allah. All indications are that he was very devout.
Also, he was wearing a traditional South Asian garb associated with Muslim conservatives in Iraq and Afghanistan (though his linage is Jordanian and Palestinian) and was allegedly handing out Qurans.
Don't mistake what I am saying. Religion probably played a significant role in this attack, but that doesn't make it terrorism, the same way people can commit terrorist acts for motivations that are not religious.
__________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
I never heard that before. Not saying it's not possible, probably different for different Arabs.
Although 'akbar' or 'ekber' (again depends on accents) means great, it probably is used like ''oh dear god'' kind of thing.
But I don't know.
__________________
J'ai besoin de vivre
De vivre devant moi
Ceux qui m'aiment me suivent
Je sais toi tu restes là
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Je ne sais rien faire d’autre
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Et n'est pas ta faute C'est ma faute à toi...
We can take it at what it most likely was: battle cry. His gun wasn't jamming, he didn't stub his toe, etc. He was doing a battle cry before he mowed some people down.
Also, all prayers start (or majority of) with Allah-u-Akbar. It also may not be likely that it would mean ''godddamn it'' if a prayer is commenced with these words.
Again, not saying its not true, just saying possibility of it being true is not great.
__________________
J'ai besoin de vivre
De vivre devant moi
Ceux qui m'aiment me suivent
Je sais toi tu restes là
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Je ne sais rien faire d’autre
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Et n'est pas ta faute C'est ma faute à toi...
Gender: Male Location: USA, Oklahoma. Pewpy balls.
Right. In my opinion, a devote Muslim like that, is not going to be using a sacred phrase in such a manner. Considering no where in that "enlighten" article does it say it can be used as an expletive, I'm quie sure he was using it the way jihadists do.
thats more my understanding. It could also be like "OMFG" or "good grief", to the best of my knowledge. I just don't think they have as diverse a set of expletives as we do.
its not a literal translation though, that is true, it would be a coloquialism, and probably varies between regions. I just know I used it that way in some Arabic skits that I did in class.
__________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Last edited by inimalist on Nov 7th, 2009 at 11:29 PM
right, because western media has been known to give a realistic and thorough examination of Arab culture in the past
__________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
a UK news release explaining why a gunman might say Allahu Akbar before shooting people is an authoritative study of the arabic language?
cool, i now see your point
oh, totally unrelated, the phase "whats up" in english, not actually asking what is above you.
similarly, the phrase "ma akbar" (not akbar "great", the second 'a' is a fatah and not an allif, the 'a' sound would be less pronounced in pronunciation) literally means "what is the news", but, when a person says it, they are saying hello.
__________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Gender: Male Location: USA, Oklahoma. Pewpy balls.
Good God, man. Stop being childish.
Edit - I have not found one reference to what you are saying, inimalist. Every last place I go to, islamic worship sites, news articles created to "educate" people on the use, religion databases, etc. Not one of them has indicated what you said.
You've made childish comments (replied with sarcasm and argumentum ad hominem comments) instead of actually proving yoru point. You should know that making claims like that need to be substantiated.
__________________
Last edited by dadudemon on Nov 8th, 2009 at 12:35 AM
Native Arab speaker from Morocco saying that it is a correct usage of the phrase. I guess his Jordanian (I think) TA also said it was correct.
__________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
I am almost certain that the word is ''ukbarak'' not ''akbar''.
Akbar is ''gretaest'' also could be used for as superlative for big...so ''bigger''.
__________________
J'ai besoin de vivre
De vivre devant moi
Ceux qui m'aiment me suivent
Je sais toi tu restes là
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Je ne sais rien faire d’autre
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Et n'est pas ta faute C'est ma faute à toi...
Last edited by lil bitchiness on Nov 8th, 2009 at 12:37 AM
I can't for the life of me remember if it is an ayn or alif at the start, but akbar with a fatah means news, like news broadcast program.
EDIT: I only took a year and a half, so I don't know for sure, but akbar (news) and ukbarak may have a similar root, K-B-R or something
EDIT: damn it, akbar (great) also has the fatah, it must be that akbar (news) begins with an ayn... blah...
EDIT: ok, so wow, it is phonetically similar to akbar, but is spelled Akhbar (alif, kha, ba, alif, ra)
__________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Last edited by inimalist on Nov 8th, 2009 at 12:43 AM
Yeah, and also I cannot write at all. All those letters which are from the same ''family'' i.e written the same but with ''accents'' or ''dots'' as I call them, on top or bottom, I mix up all the time.
The sound changes depending on the ''dots'' like ''zh'' and ''z''. But I cannot decide on the roots at all. Plus my vocabulary is extremely limited.
If I knew how to write it, maybe we could check it out.
__________________
J'ai besoin de vivre
De vivre devant moi
Ceux qui m'aiment me suivent
Je sais toi tu restes là
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Je ne sais rien faire d’autre
J'ai besoin d'aimer
Et n'est pas ta faute C'est ma faute à toi...
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Nov 7th, 2009 01:22 AM
