The "conflicting beliefs simultaneously" thing puzzles me, too.
In linguistics, there is a theory called the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, that posits that the language that you speak affects how you perceive the world. It's one of those things that are fun to think about but probably can never be proven. At any rate, Arabic is very different from English and other Indo-European languages, so maybe the thought processes are just so different that they can simultaneously consider bin Laden a hero for taking down the WTC, and a martyr for being unfairly accused of taking down the WTC.
Maybe saying things you wish were true isn't really lying if you speak Arabic.
FWIW, Pashto, which is the main language in Afghanistan, is Indo European, as is Farsi, which is the main language spoken in Iran, and Kurdish, the language spoken by the Kurds, so if the Sapir Whorf hypothesis is true, then we English speakers ought to be able to understand Iranians, Afghanis and Kurds better than Semitic language speakers like Iraqis, Arabs or Israelis.
BWDIK? |
