Demand removal of insulting
and inaccurate definitions of 'Arab" in
Roget's Dictionary. The
dictionary is a free online publication of
Lexico Publishing Group, LLC.
Paterson, August 19, 2005: AAF is outraged by the derogatory and
insulting definitions of the word 'Arab' contained in the 2005
edition of Roget's Dictionary.
The dictionary includes eight offensive definitions of the word
'Arab', such as 'bum',
'derelict' ,
'ragamuffin', and 'tramp'.
Aref Assaf, President of AAF, commented that Lexico, Inc, the
publisher of Dctionary.com and which is based in Los Angeles,
California, USA, fails to provide any citations in which these
pejorative definitions were used. We call upon Lexico, Inc not
deliberately engage in such seriously
false stereotyping and misrepresentation of an entire people
with tremendous positive achievements in many fields of human
endeavor. The cultural and scientific contributions of the Arabs
to Western civilization during the Middle Ages were highly
significant, especially in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and
philosophy."
“AAF
joins other concerned entities in
demanding the immediate removal of such outrageous, insulting
and derogatory definitions and the immediate public issuance of
an apology from the publisher. Because the Dictionary. Com is an
online publication; we believe a timely correction is possible
unless the editors believe in the validity of these definitions.
Maintaining these inaccuracies only perpetuate negative
castigation of the Arab people and conjure hateful and racist
practices against them."
The word
Arab is a name given to
the ancient and present-day inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula
and often applied to the peoples closely allied to them in
ancestry, language, religion, and culture. Presently more than
300 million Arabs are living mainly in 22 countries.
|
The American Arab Forum,
AAF, endeavors to provide a reliable and credible
gateway of information and resources to and about the
Arab American community in New Jersey and the United
States.
www.americanarabforum.org |
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