Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_MacDonald
Something lost on us westerners is the rhetorical nature of the Arab communication style. They use a lot of metaphors and overstatements in their communication. Sure, Hizbollah and Iran and any other power in the Middle East may have said that Israel should be wiped from the earth, but I doubt that is the literal expectation. I think if you use the Arab rhetoric-to-english dictionary you'll find that "wiping them from the earth" is equivalent to a "crushing defeat". Its kind of like when you pants the local bully in gym class and he states he's "going to kill you." He's not really going to kill you, but the rhetoric sure scares the hell out of you.
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When scheduling a meeting, they also say (loosely translated) "We'll have a meeting on Monday if Allah is willing".
If the meeting on Monday doesn't happen, I guess Allah wasn't willing. It takes out all of the personal responsibility for their choices.
I don't think that their "metaphors and overstatements" are near as exaggerated as you make them seem. They know what they're saying, and yet have made no effort to clarify... yet it is "our" responsibility to read between the lines?