Re[2]: [tied] Re: Was proto-romance a pidgin?

At 3:42:26 PM on Tuesday, April 29, 2003, alex_lycos wrote:

[...]

> First of all not all the North Africa speak Arabic. The
> widespread of Arabic language there where it is is mostly
> trough the early adoption of the islamic religion and
> since the Arabic is the language of the Coran, every good
> muslem must know that language.

I believe that this last statement is false. The largest
Islamic country (in terms of population) is Indonesia, and I
do not believe that most Indonesians know Arabic. As I
understand it the normal practice in non-Arabic-speaking
Islamic countries is for the devout to commit large chunks
of the Qur'an to rote memory; this does not require learning
Arabic.

Brian