Here’s some background to this story. In the context of a project on modern languages, a New York State school arranged for the pledge to be read in a different language each day. One of the languages was Arabic – a language spoken in many countries by people of different faiths and none. Fox News’ interview with Zuhdi Jasser opened with some views from local teens:
Everything that happened was between our country and them, and then we’re saying our country’s pledge in their language.
‘Was this just an innocent mistake?’ asks the presenter, not leaving room for those who might think this was not a mistake. Zuhdi Jasser, a representative of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, agreed. He asked the presenter to imagine reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in German in WW2. Although German is spoken outside Germany, this is not a good analogy. Many Arabic speaking countries are clearly not at war with the US – Saudi Arabia for example. I remained unclear why Jasser felt that the Pledge in Arabic represented ‘the exact core of what we are fighting.’ He seemed to imply that it was really a covert pledge to the Caliphate, likely to radicalise American Muslim youth. Without evidence to the contrary, I’d assume that if there was any political intention, it was to demonstrate that those whose first language was Arabic could be just as loyal to their country as anyone else.
