I soon plan to restart my studies of Arabic to prepare for my travels in Morocco, Mauritania, and Mali. When I was studying Arabic before, I came across the word "madrassa". This simply means "school". Nothing more. Just "school". So what's with all this Obama and the "secular madrassa?"--a term used by Bob Kerrey? I'm ashamed to say that I was home and Tucker Carlson was on the TV and I heard him say "there's no such thing as a secular madrassa". http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22326849/ In fact, the term "madrassa" defaults to secular in Arabic--just not in English where it defaults to "radical Islamic". So I guess you could call it a secular madrassa if it is a non-religious school.
Anyway, I have to recreate a few grown over neural ruts so that I can say "wa alaykum as-Salaam" when someone says "As-salaamu alaykum", and exchange "ahlan wa sahlan", and "tasharafna" and "kayf al-Hal?"
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