Who I Am, and Why I Am Here

al-Mutarjim responds to recent criticism from a website dedicated to "expos[ing]...anti-Muslim loons"

Why and How I Learned Arabic

From a very young age I believed that this country and its constitution were founded by the hand of God, and that it was His destiny for His children that we should be free to worship Him according to the dictates of our consciences. When the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were perpetrated by Muslims who claimed to be acting in the name of Islam, I, like most Americans, thought, "these people must be crazy." I wondered, "What religion could actually sanction this? Surely they are just twisting their religion." However, some time after that I became acquainted with a few books about Islam and Muhammad; notably Serge Trifkovic's The Sword of the Prophet and Robert Spencer's The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades. These books shocked me with the things that they revealed about Islam and its prophet. As I read through the quotations they included from Islam's sacred texts, I felt darkness. I knew something was wrong.

Thus I decided to read from the texts of Islam for myself--the Qur'an, the Sahih of al-Bukhari, The Life of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq, The Reliance of the Traveller by Ahmad Ibn Naqib al-Misri, etc. As I did so, I came to know that there was something very dark about the teachings of Islam itself. It became apparent that terrorists who acted in the name of Islam were not merely inventing new doctrines or twisting old ones, but were carrying out Islam's actual teachings, such as the command to "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day" [Qur'an 9:29]. Being familiar with the teachings of Christ and the influence of His Holy Spirit, I was able to discern between the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the darkness of these sacred texts of Islam. With this knowledge, I resolved to work to expose this darkness, in order to defend this country and its inhabitants, and also to open the eyes of those already enslaved by Islam.

This leads me to Arabic. In the spring of 2007, I decided to begin studying Arabic. For financial and other reasons I did not have the opportunity to go to school to do so, so I studied on my own. I studied every day, and (mostly) followed a strict regimen of 2 hours of study per day, comprised of both Arabic reading and listening. After more than two years and countless hours of study, I was able to take and pass a professional-level Arabic exam, which measured my Arabic ability at ILR Level 3 "professional working proficiency" (which was also the highest possible score on the test). At that time, I also began working full-time as an Arabic translator. Miraculously, I was able to do all of this without ever having set foot in a formal Arabic-language classroom (I have since spent hundreds of hours in Arabic classes). I say this not to boast of my own abilities, but rather to testify to the hand of God in my life.

Al-Mutarajjam

But, when you learn a language unconventionally, you make unconventional mistakes. Yes, I did mistransliterate (not mistranslate) the word 'translator' when I chose to use that as my alias. The reason is simple:  having learned Arabic unconventionally, I learned to read and understand Arabic words, sometimes without knowing how to pronounce them. This can happen when dealing with a language that has no written vowels. Thus my name became 'al-Mutarajjam,' when it should have been 'al-Mutarjim.'

I later realized this mistake, but was hesitant to change since so many people already knew me by the name al-Mutarajjam. Finally, after receiving criticism for the name from another blogger, and after consulting with a native Arabic speaker about the matter, I decided to make the correction.

Translating Jihad

I started this blog in winter 2010 to expose the violent, intolerant, and totalitarian doctrines of Islam. It is common to hear these doctrines expressed candidly by Muslims when they are speaking to other Muslims in Arabic, but it is not so common to hear them expressed freely by Muslims speaking to Western audiences.

A perfect example of this comes in a fatwa posted on the Arabic-language section of Islamonline.net, which was founded by Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi, regarding the Prophet Muhammad having intercourse with his prepubescent wife 'Aisha. An excerpt of my translation follows:

...it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl. The Qur'an is not like the books of jurisprudence which mention what the implications of things are, even if they are prohibited. It is true that the prophet (PBUH) entered into a marriage contract with A'isha when she was six years old, however he did not have sex with her until she was nine years old.

A fatwa on the same topic on the English side of the site smooths over this uncomfortable bit of Islamic history:

As for the Prophet’s condition before this marriage, it clearly explained what we’ve said that it was a purely sublime aim and purpose that motivated him to marry `Aisha. That’s why the marriage was not consummated until sometime after the emigration to Madinah, when she had reached maturity.

The author of the article which calls me a fraud was unable to refute this translation, or any of my other translations. He spent hours on my site over several days, scrutinizing every piece of it. If he could have refuted any of them, he would have. I take pride in my work, which is to produce accurate translations exposing the violent and intolerant doctrines of Islam to the English-speaking audience. I invite all to come and scrutinize my work. One who has, native Egyptian and fluent Arabic speaker Nonie Darwish, reviewed a video I translated, and praised my translation, saying I had done an "excellent job."

Conclusion

I know that the Lord has given me a gift to be able to learn Arabic. I do not understand all the purposes of the Lord, but I do believe that He has a purpose for me in this work. So I will press on, and continue to work tirelessly to help the non-Arabic-speaking audience understand what Islam really teaches.

al-Mutarjim
Translating Jihad

(This post is in response to the article on loonwatch.com which seeks to discredit al-Mutarjim and Translating Jihad.)