Quote:
Originally Posted by wg_flamip
I'm not sure how long it's been going on, but I've noticed a lot of people using the word "wallahi" lately around town ( see here, for example). It's a word of Arabic origin meaning "I swear to God," and seems to have entered Toronto's traditionally Caribbean-origin street slang from the Somali community. It's even become a bit of an inside joke, especially since Drake uses the word quite a bit. Apparently it's haraam to say it (like taking the Lord's name in vain) and some Muslims aren't too thrilled about this development.
|
Oh? That's really cool. In a multi-faceted way, I mean. It's cool when different communities influence each other linguistically, but blasphemy especially warms my heart.
There's this general sense in the secular West that it's perfectly fine to blaspheme against Christianity, but that Islam either is too scary to rub the wrong way for fear of the invariable jihadist backlash, or needs to be treated with kid gloves because apologists tend to conflate the vigorous rubbishing of a rubbish religion with nativist xenophobia and/or racism.
So the fact that black dudes are now going around saying this, and that non-black dudes are picking it up in mimicry, and that some touchy Muslims don't like it, is totally, totally...
Toronto.
Mark this down as: faith in humanity temporarily restored.