"Civil Society" has become the new touch phrase in Pakistani politics. And it’s gotten to the point where people express the same kind of cynicism about it that is usually reserved for words like "Islamist", and "War on Terror", and, well, "Progressive Islam". A friend on one of our alumni mailing lists was getting pretty disgusted by Nawaz Sharif’s piling on to the Civil Society bandwagon.

Even a glimmer of intelligence prompts me to ask the hard questions. As reported by the AP, a program by an interfaith group in Richmond, VA places ads on buses and billboards with Arabic writing on them to decrease the association of the script with terrorism and other negative connotations. It sounds like a really good idea…but what about its cultural and linguistic implications for the rest of us non-Arab Muslims?

Ads Hope to Dispel Fears of Muslims

By KRISTEN GELINEAU
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

The small beige signs bearing swirling, black Arabic script appear all over town on buses and at colleges. One panicked bus rider wondered if they were secret messages from terrorists. Should the FBI be contacted? What do they mean? Actual translation: "Paper or plastic?" The signs are part of a campaign by the Virginia Interfaith Center,aimed at dispelling some of the public's fears about the Muslim community.

"As soon as people see Arabic, they immediately make an association with terrorism," said the Rev. C. Douglas Smith, executive director of the interfaith center. "That's probably because since 9/11, not only is fear overwhelming us, but that's how we're being trained to think."

Besides the "paper or plastic" sign, there are two others _ one which is the Arabic version of the "I'm a little tea pot" rhyme and the other roughly translating to the English equivalent of "rock, paper, scissors." Accompanying the translations at the bottom of the posters are comments such as, "Misunderstanding can make anything scary," and "What did you think it said?"

Sure, I understand that. But, from an academic point of view I do find it curious that they would choose Arabic the language rather than Urdu even though both are written in Arabic script. I mean, if no one knows what they say and the point is to expose people to the script as a familiarization technique, the underlying language is unimportant. They could have easily interspersed Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and even Jawi Malay words and it would not detract from the program's intent. I am curious to learn which Muslims were consulted on it; I would not be surprised if they were primarily of Arab origins.