San Diego State University, May, 2003

From: Ghada Osman [mailto:gosman@mail.sdsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 11:43 AM
To: Ala, Mohammad
Cc: 'linguist@mail.sdsu.edu'; 'pgtf@iic.org'; 'linguist@rohan.sdsu.edu';
'jkaplan@mail.sdsu.edu'; 'disc@iic.org'
Subject: Re: Your site information is wrong.

Dear Dr. Ala,

Thank you for taking the time to look at our website. I think we are all
aware that the Persian language is different from the Arabic language, and
nothing on the website suggests otherwise. Since Persian was being offered
for the first time this semester at SDSU, I took the opportunity to
advertise the courses on the page for the Arabic program. Your informant
who claimed that we "have used this wrong information for many years" is
completely in error.

Regarding the naming of the Persian/ Arabian Gulf on the map, my interest
was in obtaining a map that had all the names of the countries and
bodies of water in Arabic. I myself am not interested in these polemics of
nomenclature. If you have a good map that has all the names of the
countries and bodies of water in Arabic (including the Persian Gulf), I
would be happy to place that on the website instead.

Sincerely,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Ghada Osman
Dept of Linguistics and Oriental Languages
Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182

-----Original Message-----
From: Ala, Mohammad [mailto:mala@exchange.calstatela.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 10:42 AM
To: 'gosman@mail.sdsu.edu'
Cc: 'linguist@mail.sdsu.edu'; 'pgtf@iic.org'; 'linguist@rohan.sdsu.edu'; 'jkaplan@mail.sdsu.edu'; 'disc@iic.org'
Subject: [PGTF] Your site information is wrong.

Dear Dr. Osman:

Greetings from California State University, Los Angeles. It came to my attention
that your site http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/linguist/arabic.html was wrongly using some information.

Persian is listed under Arabic Program. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/linguist/lol.html You know very well that Persian language is different than Arabic language. The person who reported to me indicated that you have used this wrong information for many years. Persians are different than Arabs in terms of culture, language, and heritage.

Secondly, the map that is displayed on the site, uses a wrong name for Persian Gulf. You may refer to http://www.persiangulfonline.org to get the facts about a United Nations recognized name for the body water between Iran and the Arab countries.

University is a place to teach correct information and promote honesty and integrity.

I am writing this e-mail to complain about the two major problems which I see on your website. For now, I am copying Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan who is the Department Chair. If these problems are not solved at the Department level, I will contact the Dean, and take it as far as
I can to correct the problems.

I am copying our Persian Gulf Taskforce members who live in different parts of the world.

Sincerely, Mohammad Ala, Professor of Management
Director of Productivity Center
Board Member: http://www.persiangulfonline.org
http://www.iran-heritage.org