GUWAHATI, March 21: In a significant move, ahead of the forthcoming State Assembly election to mount pressure on the State Government in favour of its various ‘long-standing demands,’ the State unit of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind is going to organize a conference as well as a public meeting at Guwahati on April 3. Interestingly, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Governor Lt. Gen (retired) Ajai Singh are scheduled to attend the ensuing meeting, said Hafiz Basir Ahmed, spokesperson of the State Jamiat.
"We are in touch with Prime Minister Manmohon Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and their participation along with some other central leaders in the ensuing meeting cannot be ruled out," Ahmed said. Moulana Asad Madani, national president of the Jamiat, will grace the occasion, he added.
According to Ahmed, a massive public meeting will be organized at the Sonaram School Field to mobilize public opinion in favour of the long-standing demands of Jamiat. "The government had given us several assurances before the last parliamentary election, but no positive signal has been received so far for addressing our long-standing demands," he said.
Following the five zonal conferences of the organization, the State leadership of the Jamiat is going to adopt a final resolution during the April 3 conference and submit it to the State Government, Ahmed said. The Jamiat will take up its next course of action after observing the government’s response to its demands, he added.
The demands of Jamiat include a final solution of the foreigner issue, updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on the basis of cut-off year as 1971, implementing the IM(DT) Act all over the country, publishing of a white paper on community-wise distribution of the government jobs, early solution of the flood and erosion problem of Assam and rehabilitation of riot-victim refugees camping in BTAD areas.
The Jamiat also demanded exclusion of villages which consist of 75 per cent or more non-Bodo population from the BTAD, Ahmed said.
Meanwhile, a 60-member reception committee headed by Hazi Imran Hussain, has been formed in a meeting held in the city yesterday, Rashidur Zaman, president of the Kamrup district committee of the Jamiat.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Rekibuddin questions role of AGP leaders in Nellie, Gohpur massacre
‘GUWAHATI, March 21: Rekibuddin Ahmed, president of Assam Pradesh Youth Congress Committee, has alleged that the AGP was indulging in a dangerous design to carve out an Islamic nation through its minority cell.
Mr Ahmed urged the people of the State to stay united and thwart the AGP design. He termed the minority convention of the Asom Gana Parishad, held recently in the city, as an electoral gimmick.
In a press note to the media, the youth Congress president termed the AGP show of concern towards the minorities a hogwash. ‘‘Why has the AGP forgotten its tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the State,’’ he queried and said that right before its inception as a party, the founding-fathers of the AGP were against the minorities.
He said that the Assam agitation against the foreigners was nothing but a way of torturing the Muslim population of Assam and a ploy for expelling them from Assam. He said that incidents like this will never go out of the memories of the minorities.
He also alleged that in the name of agitation, some of the top leaders of the party had orchestrated massacres like the ones at Gohpur and Nellie.
He said that because the party is in doldrums now, it is trying to sympathize with the minorities and talking about their development. Mr Ahmed also termed the AGP attempt of repealing the IM(DT) Act as an anti-minority stand of the party. He claimed that it was because of the Congress that the IM(DT) was still in force in the State and that the minorities are not being harassed, and are able to live a dignified life.
Mr Ahmed urged the people of the State to stay united and thwart the AGP design. He termed the minority convention of the Asom Gana Parishad, held recently in the city, as an electoral gimmick.
In a press note to the media, the youth Congress president termed the AGP show of concern towards the minorities a hogwash. ‘‘Why has the AGP forgotten its tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the State,’’ he queried and said that right before its inception as a party, the founding-fathers of the AGP were against the minorities.
He said that the Assam agitation against the foreigners was nothing but a way of torturing the Muslim population of Assam and a ploy for expelling them from Assam. He said that incidents like this will never go out of the memories of the minorities.
He also alleged that in the name of agitation, some of the top leaders of the party had orchestrated massacres like the ones at Gohpur and Nellie.
He said that because the party is in doldrums now, it is trying to sympathize with the minorities and talking about their development. Mr Ahmed also termed the AGP attempt of repealing the IM(DT) Act as an anti-minority stand of the party. He claimed that it was because of the Congress that the IM(DT) was still in force in the State and that the minorities are not being harassed, and are able to live a dignified life.
Mr A . F Golam Osmani dropped from Minority Devp Board
GUWAHATI, March 21: Mr AF Golam Osmani, MP, has been dropped from the Assam Minority Development Board and in his place, Mr Imran Shah, convenor (Administration), APCC has been inducted as one of the members of the Board. A notification to this effect has been issued by the State Welfare of Minorities and Development Department recently, an official press release stated
For whom Illegal Migrants Act
Illegal Migrants Act to stay
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet decided to retain Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 on October 27 in a meeting chaired by PM Manmohan Singh.
The NDA government had introduced a Bill in the last session of the previous Lok Sabha to repeal the Act saying it had not proved effective in identifying illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The Bill was then referred to a parliamentary panel, led by Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee, but before the panel could finalise its report, the House was dissolved and Bill lapsed.
The IMDT Act was enacted in 1983 by the Congress government after agitation of All Assam Students Union against the intrusion of foreigners into Assam.
The law has been the cause of considerable friction between the Congress and the BJP. The Congress has the view that the Act proved to be a bulwark against arbitrary detection and deportation of Bangali-speaking Indian nationals from Assam.
The BJP criticised the UPA government for deciding to retain the Act. It said that it amounted to providing protection to illegal Bangladesh immigrants at the cost of the country’s security. BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that "the action of the central government was actually providing constitutional protection to illegal immigrants".
The IMDT Act is only applicable to Assam. Other states including Jammu & Kashmir have Foreigners’ Act to detect illegal intruders.
The Home Ministry’s Task Force on Border management headed by former Union Home Minister Madhav Godbole had criticised the Act as an "ineffective toothless piece of legislation" The law unlike the Foreigners Act divested the police from issuing "Quit India" notice to suspected foreigners. Besides divesting the police from the powers of arrest, interrogation, the Act even shifted the burden of proof to the police from the accused, unlike Foreigners Act. The Task Force had recommended repeal of the Act saying of the 1.5 crore Bangladeshi immigrants only 1494 had been deported to Bangladesh.
The 16 tribunals set up under the Act have till now identified only 9,000 Bangladeshi migrants of which 1,500 have been deported.
In 1998, the then Assam governor Lt Gen (retd) SK Sinha submitted a report on illegal immigration. He had written that illegal migration was a threat to demography and he wanted the repeal of the IMDT Act saying it facilitated continued stay of illegal immigrants.
There was an accord between former prime minister Rajiv Gandh and All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) leaders in 1985. They had launched an agitation between 1979 and 1985 to oust illegal Bangladeshi migrants of the state. As per the accord it was decided that the foreigners who came to Assam after January 1, 1966 and upto March 24, 1971, would be detected and their names would be deleted from the electoral rolls. And the foreigners who came on or after March 25, 1971 would be expelled after their detection. But owing to the IMDT Act the agreements of Assam Accord could not be implemented. The then Assam chief minister Profulla Mohantha moved the Supreme Court for the abrogation of the Act, with several other northeastern states too subsequently filing affidavits before the apex court for its deletion.
The present Congress Government in Assam recently took the stand in the Supreme Court that IMDT Act protected genuine Indians and it alone could help detect and deport real migrants. «
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet decided to retain Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 on October 27 in a meeting chaired by PM Manmohan Singh.
The NDA government had introduced a Bill in the last session of the previous Lok Sabha to repeal the Act saying it had not proved effective in identifying illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The Bill was then referred to a parliamentary panel, led by Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee, but before the panel could finalise its report, the House was dissolved and Bill lapsed.
The IMDT Act was enacted in 1983 by the Congress government after agitation of All Assam Students Union against the intrusion of foreigners into Assam.
The law has been the cause of considerable friction between the Congress and the BJP. The Congress has the view that the Act proved to be a bulwark against arbitrary detection and deportation of Bangali-speaking Indian nationals from Assam.
The BJP criticised the UPA government for deciding to retain the Act. It said that it amounted to providing protection to illegal Bangladesh immigrants at the cost of the country’s security. BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that "the action of the central government was actually providing constitutional protection to illegal immigrants".
The IMDT Act is only applicable to Assam. Other states including Jammu & Kashmir have Foreigners’ Act to detect illegal intruders.
The Home Ministry’s Task Force on Border management headed by former Union Home Minister Madhav Godbole had criticised the Act as an "ineffective toothless piece of legislation" The law unlike the Foreigners Act divested the police from issuing "Quit India" notice to suspected foreigners. Besides divesting the police from the powers of arrest, interrogation, the Act even shifted the burden of proof to the police from the accused, unlike Foreigners Act. The Task Force had recommended repeal of the Act saying of the 1.5 crore Bangladeshi immigrants only 1494 had been deported to Bangladesh.
The 16 tribunals set up under the Act have till now identified only 9,000 Bangladeshi migrants of which 1,500 have been deported.
In 1998, the then Assam governor Lt Gen (retd) SK Sinha submitted a report on illegal immigration. He had written that illegal migration was a threat to demography and he wanted the repeal of the IMDT Act saying it facilitated continued stay of illegal immigrants.
There was an accord between former prime minister Rajiv Gandh and All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) leaders in 1985. They had launched an agitation between 1979 and 1985 to oust illegal Bangladeshi migrants of the state. As per the accord it was decided that the foreigners who came to Assam after January 1, 1966 and upto March 24, 1971, would be detected and their names would be deleted from the electoral rolls. And the foreigners who came on or after March 25, 1971 would be expelled after their detection. But owing to the IMDT Act the agreements of Assam Accord could not be implemented. The then Assam chief minister Profulla Mohantha moved the Supreme Court for the abrogation of the Act, with several other northeastern states too subsequently filing affidavits before the apex court for its deletion.
The present Congress Government in Assam recently took the stand in the Supreme Court that IMDT Act protected genuine Indians and it alone could help detect and deport real migrants. «
Riba
What is microcredit
By Anjum Ara Khalidi
The microcredit movement first of all began in Bangladesh 25 years ago with a $60 donation which is worth more than $1 billion today. At present, its replications are spread over many major cities, including Delhi, Hyderabad and New York City. Its basic lending principles, if adopted by Muslim communities in India, hold the potential for alleviating poverty for a substantial number of people within a matter of years.
The concept is simple: Lend money to poor people to start or expand a small business and ensure that they repay their loans in small instalments. Most importantly, the money is provided without requiring collateral, i.e., something of equal value to the loan to be held as a mortgage to guarantee repayment. This is what sets apart all microcredit institutions from regular established financial institutions. It provides access to credit and money by those who are normally deemed too risky to lend money to by commercial banks.
The first such microlending institution was Grameen Bank, started in Chittagong by Muhammed Yunus, a professor of economics at an American university, with his own contribution of $60. Dr. Yunus describes in his book, Banker for the Poor, how he met with bank managers during a visit home, and asked them why they did not lend money to street-level vendors. Too risky, he was told. So he dipped into his own pocket and lent $60 to a group of three basket weavers and made the women collectively responsible for repaying their individual debts. This group met all the expectations, and the movement got started. More such groups were formed, money was donated by foreign governments, and within a few years spread to most parts of rural Bangladesh. The movement's success, inevitably, shook up the established power structures in rural communities, and a long delayed social change got under way.
According to the latest Microcredit Summit Campaign Report, there are 234 microcredit institutions around the world, reaching 35.8 million of the poorest families. Forty-four of these institutions are located in India, reaching more than 9.3 million of India's poorest. The report defines the "poorest" in developing countries as families whose income is in the bottom 50 percent of all those living below their country's poverty line when they started with a program.
Some of the organizations located in India include the Friends of Women's World Banking and the Self-Employed Women’s Association both in Ahmedabad; Swayam Krishi Sangam and SHARE Microfin Limited, both in Hyderabad.
Grameen and other such microcredit institutions firmly believe that poverty is not created by the poor; it is created by the institutions and the policies which surround them. Furthermore, they believe that charity alone is not an answer to poverty. Charity only helps perpetuate poverty because it creates dependency and takes away an individual's initiative to break through the wall of poverty. Instead, access to credit and the unleashing of energy and creativity in each human being is the answer to poverty.
What makes this approach practical and achievable is that a small business can be based upon skills an individual may already have, such as sewing, basket weaving or farming. This is the beauty of all microlending institutions. It allows persons, men or women, literate or illiterate, to strive to support themselves financially and build stability in their lives.
Due to equal access, thousands of women have been able to raise their status, lessen their dependency and improve their homes and the nutritional standards of their children due to these microcredit programs all over the world.
The success of many microlending operations has shown that many of the doubts some had to lending to the poor have been overcome through the Grameen Bank approach. For example, some thought that those living in poverty would not be able to form businesses that yield significant profits; however, many borrowers in microcredit programs have successfully done so. It was also thought that the poor would not be able to repay their loans; however most successful microcredit institutions, such as the Grameen Bank, have reached repayment rates of 97 percent, which exceeds the levels achieved by most commercial banks.
It has been estimated that the average household income of Grameen Bank borrowers in Bangladesh is about 25 to 50 percent higher in comparison to other villages. It has also been found that the landless have benefited the most from these microcredit programs. As a consequence, this has resulted in a considerable reduction in the number of Grameen Bank members living below the poverty line.
What started as an innovative local initiative has now grown to make an impact on poverty alleviation at the national level. The Grameen Bank approach has proven to be a viable model for poverty alleviation across the globe. «
By Anjum Ara Khalidi
The microcredit movement first of all began in Bangladesh 25 years ago with a $60 donation which is worth more than $1 billion today. At present, its replications are spread over many major cities, including Delhi, Hyderabad and New York City. Its basic lending principles, if adopted by Muslim communities in India, hold the potential for alleviating poverty for a substantial number of people within a matter of years.
The concept is simple: Lend money to poor people to start or expand a small business and ensure that they repay their loans in small instalments. Most importantly, the money is provided without requiring collateral, i.e., something of equal value to the loan to be held as a mortgage to guarantee repayment. This is what sets apart all microcredit institutions from regular established financial institutions. It provides access to credit and money by those who are normally deemed too risky to lend money to by commercial banks.
The first such microlending institution was Grameen Bank, started in Chittagong by Muhammed Yunus, a professor of economics at an American university, with his own contribution of $60. Dr. Yunus describes in his book, Banker for the Poor, how he met with bank managers during a visit home, and asked them why they did not lend money to street-level vendors. Too risky, he was told. So he dipped into his own pocket and lent $60 to a group of three basket weavers and made the women collectively responsible for repaying their individual debts. This group met all the expectations, and the movement got started. More such groups were formed, money was donated by foreign governments, and within a few years spread to most parts of rural Bangladesh. The movement's success, inevitably, shook up the established power structures in rural communities, and a long delayed social change got under way.
According to the latest Microcredit Summit Campaign Report, there are 234 microcredit institutions around the world, reaching 35.8 million of the poorest families. Forty-four of these institutions are located in India, reaching more than 9.3 million of India's poorest. The report defines the "poorest" in developing countries as families whose income is in the bottom 50 percent of all those living below their country's poverty line when they started with a program.
Some of the organizations located in India include the Friends of Women's World Banking and the Self-Employed Women’s Association both in Ahmedabad; Swayam Krishi Sangam and SHARE Microfin Limited, both in Hyderabad.
Grameen and other such microcredit institutions firmly believe that poverty is not created by the poor; it is created by the institutions and the policies which surround them. Furthermore, they believe that charity alone is not an answer to poverty. Charity only helps perpetuate poverty because it creates dependency and takes away an individual's initiative to break through the wall of poverty. Instead, access to credit and the unleashing of energy and creativity in each human being is the answer to poverty.
What makes this approach practical and achievable is that a small business can be based upon skills an individual may already have, such as sewing, basket weaving or farming. This is the beauty of all microlending institutions. It allows persons, men or women, literate or illiterate, to strive to support themselves financially and build stability in their lives.
Due to equal access, thousands of women have been able to raise their status, lessen their dependency and improve their homes and the nutritional standards of their children due to these microcredit programs all over the world.
The success of many microlending operations has shown that many of the doubts some had to lending to the poor have been overcome through the Grameen Bank approach. For example, some thought that those living in poverty would not be able to form businesses that yield significant profits; however, many borrowers in microcredit programs have successfully done so. It was also thought that the poor would not be able to repay their loans; however most successful microcredit institutions, such as the Grameen Bank, have reached repayment rates of 97 percent, which exceeds the levels achieved by most commercial banks.
It has been estimated that the average household income of Grameen Bank borrowers in Bangladesh is about 25 to 50 percent higher in comparison to other villages. It has also been found that the landless have benefited the most from these microcredit programs. As a consequence, this has resulted in a considerable reduction in the number of Grameen Bank members living below the poverty line.
What started as an innovative local initiative has now grown to make an impact on poverty alleviation at the national level. The Grameen Bank approach has proven to be a viable model for poverty alleviation across the globe. «
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Muslims claim ownership of Taj Mahal
By Justin Huggler in Delhi16 March 2005http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=620539The Indian state is facing an extraordinary legalchallenge to its ownership of the country's mostfamous national monument, the Taj Mahal. And the claimof ownership comes from the minority that has arguablyfaced the most discrimination and mistreatment inrecent decades: Muslims.The Taj Mahal was built by the Muslim Mughal EmperorShah Jahan as a mausoleum for his beloved wife MumtazMahal, over whose death he was inconsolable. As wellas her tomb, the Taj complex includes a mosque.The ownership claim comes from the Sunni Waqf Board, aMuslim trust. The Waqf claims it has a legal title tothe Taj because the Indian government granted itownership of all Muslim tombs and graveyards in thestate of Uttar Pradesh, where the Taj is located.Since the Waqf has quasi-judicial powers, it isthreatening to make a ruling and seize ownership ofthe Taj if the Archaeological Survey of India and thecentral government do not reply to its claim by theend of March.The Taj is considered by many to be the world'sgreatest architectural masterpiece. It is almostcertainly the world's most famous monument to love.Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet, called it a"teardrop on the face of eternity".But its beauty and status as a religious site have notmade it immune to the rivalries of the region. In2002, when India and Pakistan nearly went to war, theTaj was covered in camouflaged netting, supposedly toprotect it from a Pakistani air raid - though thatwould have meant officially Islamic Pakistan bombing amosque.This time the threat to the Taj is not so dire. Itseems that what is really at stake are the lucrativegate receipts from the hordes of foreign tourists whocome to see the Taj every year. The Waqf says if itsclaim is successful, it plans to commandeer 7 per centof ticket sales.But it is unlikely the Waqf will get the Taj. This isone piece of Islamic India even the most diehard Hinduextremists will not part with in a hurry.
Fanatic Hindu Nationalist BJP ( INP) MODI .
Modi's US tour plans run into troubleAdd to ClippingsTIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2005 GANDHINAGAR: Faced with internal dissension within theBJP and growing protests in the US, doubts aresurfacing on whether Narendra Modi will embark uponhis proposed trip to the US later this month, hisfirst ever as chief minister.The refusal of Chris Matthews, a top-ranking talk-showhost, to share the platform with Modi on March 24 atthe Asian-American Hotel Owners' Association (AAHOA)meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has come as ajolt to the Modi establishment here.While a spokesperson for Matthews, who features onMSNBC's 'Hardball' programme, has announced that hisboss would not share platform "due to schedulingconflict", it is learnt that human rights activistshad flooded Matthews with e-mails, urging him todistance himself from Modi for "alleged culpability inthe Gujarat riots".American Express,the chief sponsor of the AAHOA event,too has been flooded with e-mails to withdraw itselffrom the programme.Nearer home, with the rebellion against Modi buildingup in the last few days, doubts are being expressed inthe Sachivalaya on whether he would go to the US. Ifthere are any lessons to be drawn from recent history,it was exactly ten years back when former chiefminister Keshubhai Patel faced a similar rebellion in1995 while he was on a US trip.A senior bureaucrat informed that Modi still awaits adiplomatic visa from the US consulate in Mumbai.Already, 30 human-rights activists have written to theUS secretary of state Condoleeza Rice to block thesaid trip. Among the signatories to the letter are theDirector of the Religious Freedom Programme, Nina Sheaand the advocacy director at Human Rights Watch,Thomas Malinowski.Activists say that the human rights violations inGujarat have been documented in State Departmentreports. "We're not trying to tell them anythingdifferent than what they don't already know," saidBenjamin Marsh of the Washington-based Institute onReligion and Public Policy.Modi is also scheduled to make a speech to anIndian-American group at Madison Square Garden onMarch 20 before he visits Florida. "I don't see anyreason why he should be stopped from coming here," anorganiser of the New York event, Sunil Nayak, said."The purpose of the trip is strictly business.Basically, he's coming here to let people know whatdevelopment has taken place in Gujarat."The AAHOA's membership predominantly consists ofimmigrants from Gujarat. Its decision to honour Modiat its convention and trade fair on March 24-26 hasbeen a controversial issue within the organisation,with one group resisting the move all along. One ofthe arguments being quoted in the US against Modi'svisit is the glorification of Hitler in schooltextbooks in Gujarat. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arabic language is in demand
G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special for USA TODAYPurdue University sophomore Brent Forgues is chasingan academic dream that was a rarity on this WestLafayette, Ind., campus just four years ago: He'sdetermined to be a strong speaker of Arabic.Foreseeing a career in journalism, Forgues, 20, hopesexpertise in what he calls an "obscure" language willboost his marketability in a competitive industry.To get there, he's mastering a new alphabet and lotsof unfamiliar sounds alongside similarly ambitiousstudents, from South Asian Muslims to Indiana nativesin ROTC who often come to class in fatigues. To meetthe demand, Purdue's program has ballooned from justtwo courses to 12 since fall 2003."As long as Purdue keeps adding Arabic classes, I'llkeep taking them," Forgues says. "Everybody who's inthis (Arabic 102) class now has an exact purpose inwhy they're taking it and how it will apply to theircareers."Across the USA, a surge of student curiosity aboutArabic after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ismaturing into a demand for more courses, especiallyupper-level classes as novices resolve to master thelanguage. A full 73% of 640 Arabic-language studentssurveyed at 37 institutions in 2004 said they were"determined to achieve a level of proficiency inArabic that would allow me to function in itcomfortably in my professional activities," accordingto the National Middle East Language Resource Centerat Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.Only a minority of students reach proficiency. One infour first-year students in the best programseventually reach the third-year level, says centerdirector R. Kirk Belnap. In weaker programs, he says,the dropout rate is even higher.To meet the demand, schools that already offer Arabicare expanding old programs, creating new ones andscrambling, sometimes in vain, to find qualifiedteachers. Purdue relies on six grad students to teachits courses. Vermont's Middlebury College recruitsfrom Syria and Egypt to staff its summer languageprogram. Yet even with extra efforts, variousconstraints are making it a challenge for schools tokeep up."More students have begun to realize they have tostudy it for a number of years to be reallyproficient," says William Mayers, coordinator of theArabic Language School at Middlebury College'sSunderland Language Center."We get enough good applicants from the reallyhigh-caliber schools — and these are straight-Astudents — and a lot of them we're turning downbecause of limited space."The numbers help show how interest in Arabic keepsgrowing. Enrollment in Arabic courses nationwidejumped from 5,500 to 10,600, a 92% increase, from 1998to 2002, according to the most recent data from theModern Language Association. Only American SignLanguage boosted enrollments by a larger percentage inthat time period. Since 2002, enrollments have climbedagain by an estimated 15% to 25%, the Middle Eastlanguage center says.To keep pace, some institutions are beefing up whatthey offer on an advanced level. The Center forAdvanced Proficiency in Arabic, the nation's firstintensive program offered for a full academic year,opens this fall at Georgetown University inWashington, D.C. Middlebury College is expanding itssummer program by about 10% this year and is planningto start offering third-year Arabic during theacademic year as soon as this fall.Yet with fewer than 10% of U.S. colleges offering anyArabic courses, some fear that higher-learninginstitutions on the whole aren't doing enough toadjust."Demand is there, but they're not offering (courses)because of budgetary constraints or whatever," Belnapsays. "These are very curious things in a time whenyour country is clamoring for more foreign-languageexpertise."Though many people study Arabic to enhance careers inbusiness or government, a good 20% are "heritagespeakers" with a purely cultural or personal interest,says Mahmoud al-Batal, director of the Center forArabic Study Abroad and an Arabic professor at EmoryUniversity in Atlanta.As Muslim-Americans who pray and read their holyscriptures in Arabic, Batal says, they sometimes bringa sense of purpose that goes beyond any economicquest."They see themselves as a bridge to connect people andcultures of the Arab world with the American public,"Batal says. "And they see the language piece ascritical to achieve this goal."
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