Question: Since when did everyone start adding a "U" after "Allah?" I first heard this iteration after the Ft. Hood shootings, but not before. When the first Afghan war was going on, it seemed like the cry was always "Allah Akbar!" when they shot off their stinger missiles at Soviet aircraft.

Henry Hawkins - I sleep more soundly at night due to Americans such as you! Thank You. Heroic and Satiric - my favorite kind of person.

Mr Henry Hawkins, you are a frikkin' genius. To come up with something in a Mark Steyn comment thread that beats out Steyn himself is a rare treat! Having once obtained a copy of one of Mark's books by being the sage of the day, or whatever he calls it when you send a cogent email to him (which book came, oddly enough, on my birthday, signed and all), I appreciate the effort, and especially the results. I haven't laughed so hard in ages. There is not much going on in the world that amuses me, these days. But, mere vulgar Americans though we may be, I think, with the right attitude, in the true spirit of the Light Brigade, et al, we can certainly outdo those musicians on the Titanic, before we're through.
Cheers!

Larry Brown,

Re your question below on the "u" variously seen and not seen in "Allahu Akbar"

It has to do with Arabic grammar and writing and the inexactitude of transliteration into English. Those two words are actually a full sentence "God is greater" even though the only words are "God" and "greater." The verb "to be" (that is "is" in this case) is not necessary. "Me Tarzan. You Jane. God Greater" - that's good grammar in Arabic.

If you want to get more technical, "Allah Akbar" could be said to be three words since "Allah" (which we translate as "God") actually is the word for "a god" with the definite article "al" affixed in front to make it not just "a god" but "The God." That definite article "al" is affixed right onto words with no space between and in pronunciation is integral to the word such that in many cases, depending on the fist consonant of the word it's affixed to, the "l" sound in "al" is elided and the first consonant of the word it's affixed to is doubled; thus we get words like "althani" transliterated like that and like this "ath-thani" - the first transliteration is more in line with what's actually written and the second more in line with how it would be pronounced.

Anyway, the actual characters you'd see written in Arabic, wouldn't include all the vowel sounds. In general, Arabic writing doesn't need and doesn't include the short vowels. Marks for these vowels do exist and can be included as what might look to you like superscript and subscript marks. For language references and pedagogy, and supposedly holy stuff like the the Koran, you see all the vowel marks included. For general reading and writing, you don't.

So in Arabic script the actual written characters you'd see for "Allahu Akbar" would be more like this: "allh akbr" (there are no capital letters in Arabic either). But it would be pronounced more like "allahu akbar" if someone were being precise in their pronunciation and putting that "damma" (that's the Arabic name of that "u" sounding vowel at the end of Allah)sound at the end, indicating that the word is in nominative case (because it's the subject) and it is definate (by virtue of having the definite article "al")

So you see, it's all very simple.

My reaction to this piece is a rethinking of political correctness and multiculturalism and their possible uses in the present sans-Islamic "terror" context.

What if the left is adapting political correctness and multiculturalism in order to lump "anti-state" or "anti-government" types (you have to love the sudden inexplicable appearance of these descriptors in a baffling variety of stories on international uprisings; as if fighting for liberation and fighting for sharia were equivalent) in with pro-sharia ne'erdowells.

Multiculturalism means we are all culturally equal, America being cast backwards over a millenium by revisionist decree. Environmentalism means we are all equally guilty and sinful, even if we don't happen to believe in God (a god-like state, now that's something the left intends to prove). While political correctness means we don't have the right to object to such demeaning defamation.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of mind-schlepp the left is trying to pull, but whatever it is, you can bet freedom-loving American citizens are the ultimate targets, not bomb-belt strapping would-be martyrs (or should I write, victims?).

Motive: Late for dinner reservation at a new Hawaiian-themed seafood restaurant featuring an extensive collection of birds of prey taxidermy. "Oahu Hawk Bar". Suspect swears their "cod is great!"

Henry, I noticed the conspicuous absence of the infant's drivers license details in your diaper profiling. Do you have an explanation for this piece of yellow journalism?