124-477: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab ( Arabic : عمر فاروق عبد المطلب ; also known as Umar Abdul Mutallab and Omar Farooq al-Nigeri ; born 22 December 1986) popularly referred to as the " Underwear Bomber " or " Christmas Bomber ", is a Nigerian terrorist who, at the age of 23, attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 , en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan , U.S. on 25 December 2009. Al-Qaeda in
248-562: A "moat" by The Times ) and surrounded by extensive public green spaces and the Embassy Gardens housing development. Ground was broken on 13 November 2013, and the building opened to the public on 13 December 2017. US President Donald Trump had been expected to visit in February 2018 to undertake the official opening of the new embassy but, in January 2018, announced he would not make
372-494: A U.S. government official said the government was reviewing the online postings, and has not yet independently confirmed the authenticity of the posts. CNN reported that by 2005, the postings of Farouk1986 revealed "a serious view of his religion." Tracey D. Samuelson of the Christian Science Monitor further said that the posts "suggest a student preoccupied by university admissions and English soccer clubs, but who
496-562: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
620-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
744-878: A database of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). It was not added to the FBI's 400,000-name Terrorist Screening Database , the terror watch list that feeds both the 14,000-name Secondary Screening Selectee list and the US's 4,000-name No Fly List , nor was Abdulmutallab's American visa revoked. U.S. State Department officials said in Congressional testimony that the State Department had wanted to revoke Abdulmutallab's visa, but intelligence officials requested that his visa not be revoked. The intelligence officials said that revoking Abdulmutallab's visa could have foiled
868-1077: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
992-629: A fluent English speaker, he had used contemporary technology to communicate with a wide circle of people in the West. Despite being banned from entering the UK in 2006, al-Awlaki spoke via video-link in 2007–09 on at least seven occasions at five different venues in Britain. During this period he gave a number of video-link lectures at the East London Mosque before being banned by the mosque in 2009. Pete Hoekstra ,
1116-399: A foul odour. Some saw flames on Abdulmutallab's trouser leg and the wall of the plane. Jasper Schuringa , a Dutch film director, held Abdulmutallab down while flight attendants extinguished the flames. Abdulmutallab was taken toward the front of the aircraft cabin, where he told a flight attendant he had an explosive device in his pocket. The device was a six-inch (15 cm) packet containing
1240-520: A halt to the repatriation of Guantanamo detainees from Yemen. Bennie Thompson , Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee , called for a halt to all current plans with regard to Yemen in light of Abdulmutallab's ties there. Immediately after the attack, Lateef Adegbite , Secretary General of Nigeria's Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, condemned the attack and said: "We are embarrassed by this incident and we strongly condemn
1364-405: A larger investigation into al-Qaeda. Abdulmutallab's name had come to the attention of intelligence officials many months before that, but no "derogatory information" was recorded about him. A Congressional official said that Abdulmutallab's name appeared in U.S. reports reflecting that he had connections to both al-Qaeda and Yemen. The NCTC did not check to see whether Abdulmutallab's American visa
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#17328584622191488-483: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1612-553: A luxury hotel. In March 1968, a crowd of some 10,000 demonstrated at Trafalgar Square against US involvement in the Vietnam War , before marching to Grosvenor Square. The Metropolitan Police had attempted to cordon off part of the square nearest to the embassy and there was violence as the crowd broke through the police line. Police horses were used to regain control. 200 demonstrators were arrested and 50 people needed hospital treatment including 25 police officers, one of them with
1736-576: A master's degree. On 12 June 2008, Abdulmutallab applied for and received from the US embassy in London a multiple-entry visa, valid until June 12, 2010, with which he visited Houston , Texas, from August 1–17, 2008. After graduating from university, Abdulmutallab made regular visits to the family town of Kaduna, where his father was known for financing local mosque construction and other public works. In May 2009, Abdulmutallab tried to return to Britain, ostensibly for
1860-677: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
1984-974: A new embassy site on the South Bank of the River Thames in the Nine Elms area of the London Borough of Wandsworth . The site lies within the Vauxhall/Nine Elms/Battersea Opportunity Area as set out in the London Plan . The proposed plan would only go forward if approved by the United States Congress and by the local planning authority. The Northern line extension to Battersea includes new stations at Battersea and Nine Elms, combined with major local development. The United States Department of State announced in January 2009 that it
2108-416: A personality change: he was more religious and "a loner", and wore traditional Islamic clothing. He rarely attended class, and sometimes he left class midway to go pray at a mosque. A number of sources reported contacts between Abdulmutallab and Anwar al-Awlaki, an American Yemeni Muslim lecturer and spiritual leader who had been accused of being a senior al-Qaeda talent recruiter and motivator. Al-Awlaki, who
2232-506: A religiously acceptable way. In January 2006 he chastised female users for not wearing the hijab and stated that it was not appropriate for men and women to be friends. He also described jihadist fantasies about Muslims engaging in a worldwide jihad and establishing a Muslim empire. The New York Times reported in December 2009 that "officials said the suspect told them he had obtained plastic explosives that were sewn into his underwear and
2356-576: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
2480-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
2604-496: A serious spinal injury. In October of the same year, during a demonstration organised by the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign , a splinter group of 6,000 demonstrators returned to the square. A thousand police officers formed a cordon that the protesters failed to breach and remained relatively peaceful until the crowd began to disperse when there was disorder in the neighbouring streets. Thousands of protesters marched on
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#17328584622192728-564: A seven-year course in Yemen. When his father threatened to cut off his funding, Abdulmutallab said he was "already getting everything for free" and refused to tell his father who would support him. He sent more texts stating he would be cutting off contact and disowning his family. The family last had contact with Abdulmutallab in October 2009. Yemeni officials said that Abdulmutallab was in Yemen from early August 2009, and overstayed his student visa (which
2852-465: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
2976-527: A six-month "life coaching" program at what the British authorities concluded was a fictitious school; the United Kingdom Border Agency denied his visa application. His name was placed on a UK Home Office security watch list which, according to BBC News, meant that he could not enter the UK. Passing through the country in transit was permissible and he was not permanently banned; the UK did not share
3100-600: A syringe from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with al Qaeda." In April 2009, Abdulmutallab had applied to attend an Islamic seminar in Houston, Texas. He obtained a multiple-entry visa in the U.S. Consulate in June 2008 that would be valid until June 2010. He attended the Islamic seminar from 1–17 August at AlMaghrib Institute . When Abdulmutallab returned to Yemen later in 2009, purportedly to study Arabic again, he appeared to have undergone
3224-584: A talk by al-Awlaki at the East London Mosque (which al-Awlaki may have participated in by video teleconference), but the mosque officials said that the Sunday Telegraph was misinformed. They said that "Anwar Al Awlaki did not deliver any talks at the ELM between 2005 and 2008". CBS News said that the two were communicating in the months before the bombing attempt, and sources say that, at a minimum, al-Awlaki
3348-503: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
3472-499: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
3596-475: A visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would have foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaeda threats against the United States. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
3720-470: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
3844-485: A wingspan of over 11 metres (35 feet), is situated on the roof of the Chancery Building, making it a recognizable London landmark. In October 2009, the building was granted Grade II listed status . The building served as the chancery until 2017, and has been described as a modernist classic and architectural gem. The building will reopen in 2025 after substantial interior alterations as The Chancery Rosewood ,
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3968-529: Is ... that [the suspect] had contact with al-Awlaki. The belief is this is a stronger connection with al-Awlaki" than Hasan had. Hoekstra later said credible sources told him Abdulmutallab "most likely" has ties with al-Awlaki. The Sunday Times established that Abdulmutallab first met and attended lectures by al-Awlaki in 2005, when he was first in Yemen to study Arabic. Fox News reported that evidence collected during searches of "flats or apartments of interest" connected to Abdulmutallab in London showed that he
4092-727: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
4216-677: Is a former Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria and former Nigerian Federal Commissioner for Economic Development. The family comes from Funtua in Katsina State . Abdulmutallab was raised initially in an affluent neighbourhood of Kaduna , in Nigeria's north. Abdulmutallab attended Essence International School and also took classes at the Rabiatu Mutallib Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, named for his grandfather, at that time. He also attended The British School of Lomé, Togo . He
4340-585: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
4464-542: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
4588-469: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
4712-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
4836-468: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
4960-566: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
5084-428: Is now one of Mayfair's 238 listed buildings and monuments. In 2016, plans were approved for the conversion of the building into a hotel. On 23 February 2010, the U.S. government announced that a team led by the firm of KieranTimberlake had won the competition to design the new embassy building and surrounding green spaces. The winning design resembles a crystalline cube, with a semi-circular pond on one side (called
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5208-836: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
5332-559: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
5456-584: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
5580-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
5704-516: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
5828-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
5952-511: The British Royal Family have their residences there. The embassy "strenuously denied" the reports, and a spokesman for Buckingham Palace reported that no formal request had been made. Another possible option was Chelsea Barracks , for which the U.S. Embassy made an unsuccessful bid in February 2007. On 8 October 2008, the embassy announced a conditional agreement with the real estate developer Ballymore Group to purchase property for
6076-657: The European headquarters of the United States Navy . Following World War II , the Duke of Westminster donated land for a memorial to wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Several additional statues and memorials related to the American and British relationship remain in Grosvenor Square. The next chancery, also on Grosvenor Square, was designed by Finnish American modernist architect Eero Saarinen and constructed in
6200-559: The Federal Correctional Institution, Milan , a federal prison in Michigan, where he remained during court proceedings. New restrictions were imposed on U.S. travelers, but the government did not publicise many of them because security officials reportedly "wanted the security experience to be 'unpredictable'". One day after she said that the system had "worked", Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano acknowledged that
6324-779: The River Thames and has been opened to the public since 13 December 2017, and was formally opened in January 2018. For much of the 20th century and into the 21st, the chancery was in Grosvenor Square , Westminster , London. Since 1955, Winfield House in Regents Park has served as the ambassador's official residence. The American legation in London was first situated in Great Cumberland Place , later moving to Piccadilly , 98 Portland Place (1863–1866), and 123 Victoria Street in Westminster (1883–1893). The legation
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#17328584622196448-590: The Sana'a Institute for the Arabic Language in Sana'a , Yemen, and attended lectures at Iman University . Abdulmutallab began his studies at University College London in September 2005, where he studied Engineering and Business Finance,. and earned a degree in mechanical engineering in June 2008. He was president of the school's Islamic Society, which some sources have described as a vehicle for peaceful protest against
6572-561: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
6696-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
6820-505: The targeted killing of al-Awlaki. The cleric was killed in an American drone attack in Yemen on 30 September 2011. On 25 December 2009, Abdulmutallab travelled from Ghana to Amsterdam , where he boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route to Detroit. He had a Nigerian passport and valid U.S. tourist visa, and purchased his ticket with cash in Ghana on 16 December. Passengers Kurt and Lori Haskell told The Detroit News that prior to boarding
6944-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
7068-700: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Embassy of
7192-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
7316-562: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
7440-762: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
7564-525: The Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed to have organised the attack with Abdulmutallab; they said they supplied him with the bomb and trained him. Connections to al-Qaeda and Anwar al-Awlaki have been found, although the latter denied ordering the bombing. Abdulmutallab was convicted in a U.S. federal court of eight federal criminal counts, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder of 289 people. On 16 February 2012, he
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#17328584622197688-510: The FBI that al-Awlaki was one of his trainers when he did al-Qaeda training in remote camps in Yemen. There were "informed reports" that Abdulmutallab met al-Awlaki during his final weeks of training and indoctrination prior to the attack. A U.S. intelligence official said that information pointed to connections between the two: Some of the information ... comes from Abdulmutallab, who ... said that he met with al-Awlaki and senior al-Qaeda members during an extended trip to Yemen this year, and that
7812-542: The House Committee on Homeland Security continued a series of hearings across Capitol Hill that started prior to 27 January 2010, all looking into the events leading up to and after the attempted bombing of Flight 253 over Detroit. Patrick F. Kennedy , an undersecretary for management at the US State Department, said Abdulmutallab's visa was not taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny
7936-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
8060-474: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
8184-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
8308-427: The San'a Institute for the Arabic Language in Yemen, to study Arabic from August to September 2009. He arrived in the country in August. Abdulmutallab was the only African in the 70-student school. A fellow student at the Institute said Abdulmutallab would start his day by going to the mosque for dawn prayers and then spent hours in his room reading the Quran . Ahmed Mohammed, one of his teachers, said Abdulmutallab spent
8432-467: The U.S. government conditionally agreed to sell the lease of the Grosvenor Square Chancery Building to Qatari real-estate investment firm Qatari Diar , which in 2007 purchased Chelsea Barracks. Though the price was undisclosed, the lease's worth was estimated at £ 500 million in July 2000. The development value of the property was reduced when the building was given Grade II listed status , requiring developers to maintain its current design. The building
8556-480: The United States, London The Embassy of the United States of America in London is the diplomatic mission of the United States in the United Kingdom . Its office is located in Nine Elms and is the largest American embassy in Western Europe and the focal point for events relating to the United States held in the United Kingdom. John Adams was the first minister to open an American legation in London, in 1785. The embassy building in Nine Elms overlooks
8680-426: The actions of the United States and the United Kingdom in the War on Terrorism . During his tenure as president, along with political discussions, the club participated in activities such as martial arts training and paintballing; at least one of the Society's paintballing trips involved a preacher who reportedly said: "Dying while fighting jihad is one of the surest ways to paradise." He was well liked as president of
8804-465: The alleged action by this young man. We do not think that there is any organised Islamic group in Nigeria that is inclined to such a criminal and violent act. We condemn such an extreme viewpoint and action." On 27 December, The Wall Street Journal reported that Abdulmutallab's suspected ties to jihadists from Yemen could potentially complicate the Obama administration's plans to release Yemeni detainees held in Guantanamo to Yemen. On 27 January 2010,
8928-410: The attack, describing it as revenge for the United States's role in a Yemeni military offensive against al-Qaeda in that country. Two days after the attack, Abdulmutallab was released from a hospital where he had been treated for first and second degree burns to his hands, and second degree burns to his right inner thigh and genitalia, sustained during the attempted bombing. He was subsequently held at
9052-494: The autumn of 2009. Al-Awlaki reportedly said Abdulmutallab was one of his students, that he supported his actions but had not ordered him, and that he was proud of the young man. A New York Times journalist listened to a digital recording of the meeting, and said that while the tape's authenticity could not be independently verified, the voice resembled that on other recordings of al-Awlaki. On 6 April 2010, The New York Times reported that US President Barack Obama had authorised
9176-466: The aviation security system had indeed failed. US President Barack Obama vowed the federal government would track down all those responsible for the attack, and any attack being planned against the U.S. He also ordered a review of detection and watch list procedures. Saying that "totally unacceptable" systemic and human failures had occurred, Obama told reporters he was insisting on "accountability at every level," but did not give any details. Criticism of
9300-416: The building. On 29 August 2002, Kerim Chatty , a Swedish citizen of Tunisian descent, was arrested at Stockholm-Västerås Airport trying to board a Ryanair Flight 685 destined for London Stansted Airport with a loaded gun in his luggage. Anonymous intelligence sources cited in the media claimed that the man was planning to hijack the aircraft and crash it into the United States embassy in London, using
9424-554: The cable did not give Abdulmutallab's last name. On 19 November, Abdulmutallab's father consulted with two CIA officers at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, reporting his son's "extreme religious views", and told the embassy that Abdulmutallab might be in Yemen. Acting on the report, the CIA added the suspect's name in November 2009 to the US's 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment ,
9548-567: The cleric was involved in some elements of planning or preparing the attack and in providing religious justification for it. Other intelligence linking the two became apparent after the attempted bombing, including communications intercepted by the National Security Agency indicating that the cleric was meeting with "a Nigerian" in preparation for some kind of operation. Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security Affairs, Rashad Mohammed al-Alimi, said Yemeni investigators believe
9672-567: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
9796-472: The embassy as part of a worldwide anti-racism demonstration following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. On November 6, 2024, the environmental activist group Just Stop Oil vandalised the compound wall of the embassy with orange paint in response to Donald Trump winning the 2024 United States presidential election . Two men were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in response to
9920-577: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
10044-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
10168-475: The explosive powder PETN , sewn into his underwear. Abdulmutallab was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers after the incident and turned over to the FBI pending further investigation. Abdulmutallab told authorities he had been directed by al-Qaeda , and that he had obtained the device in Yemen. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the organisation's affiliate in Yemen, subsequently claimed responsibility for
10292-593: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
10416-501: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
10540-452: The incident. Security at the Grosvenor Square embassy was tightened in the 1980s and 1990s following successive terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. It was further increased after the September 11 attacks in 2001. A massive security operation at the embassy saw one side of Grosvenor Square closed to public access by car, and armed roadblocks were stationed outside
10664-579: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
10788-463: The information with other countries. This status was based on his visa application being rejected to prevent immigration fraud rather than for a national security purpose. Intelligence officials suspect that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula member, Anwar al-Awlaki , may have directed Abdulmutallab to Yemen for al-Qaeda training. Abdulmutallab's father agreed in July 2009 to his son's request to return to
10912-608: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
11036-529: The last 10 days of Ramadan sequestered in a mosque. He apparently left the institute after a month, while remaining in-country. His family became concerned in August 2009 when he called to say he had dropped the course, but was remaining in Yemen. By September, he routinely skipped his classes at the Institute and attended lectures at Iman University, known for suspected links to terrorism. "He told me his greatest wish
11160-585: The late 1950s, opening in 1960. The United States paid only a symbolic peppercorn rent to the Duke of Westminster for use of the land . In response to an American offer to buy the site outright, the duke's trustee requested the return of ancestral lands confiscated following the American Revolutionary War , namely the city of Miami. The chancery had nine storeys, three of which are below ground. A large gilded aluminum bald eagle by Theodore Roszak , with
11284-599: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
11408-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
11532-645: The letters "UN", was produced by al-Qaeda in Yemen . The tape includes a statement justifying his actions against "the Jews and the Christians and their agents." Ghanaian officials say he was there from December 9 until December 24, when he flew to Lagos. In February 2010, a Yemeni security official said that 43 people were being interrogated for links to the Christmas Day attempt, including foreigners, some of them studying Arabic and others married to Yemeni women. Abdulmutallab
11656-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
11780-768: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
11904-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
12028-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
12152-443: The plane they witnessed a "smartly dressed man" possibly of Indian descent, around 50 years old, and who spoke "in an American accent similar to my own" helping a passenger they identified as Abdulmutallab onto the plane without a passport. Abdulmutallab spent about 20 minutes in the toilet as the flight approached Detroit, then covered himself with a blanket after returning to his seat. Other passengers heard popping noises and smelled
12276-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
12400-516: The rooftop eagle to identify it from the air. Sweden's Security Service , Säpo, denied the claims and called the reports "false information". The man was subsequently cleared of all terrorism -related charges. The security threat against the embassy prompted the U.S. government to consider moving the embassy. Several British media outlets reported that the U.S. government had wished to use Kensington Palace as their embassy, which allegedly had been vetoed by Queen Elizabeth II , as several members of
12524-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
12648-480: The senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee , said on the day of the attack that Obama administration officials and officials with access to law enforcement information told him "there are reports [the suspect] had contact [with al-Awlaki].... The question we'll have to raise is, was this imam in Yemen influential enough to get some people to attack the U.S. again." He added: "The suspicion
12772-442: The society and considered to be moderate though politically engaged. He organized a talk about the detention of terror suspects, and walked down Gower Street in an orange jumpsuit. He organized a conference in January 2007 under the banner "War on Terror Week", and advertised speakers including political figures, human rights lawyers, speakers from Cageprisoners , and former Guantánamo Bay detainees. One lecture, Jihad v Terrorism,
12896-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
13020-556: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
13144-404: The suspect travelled in October to Shabwa, where he met with suspected al-Qaeda members. They met in a house built and used by al-Awlaki to hold theological sessions, and Abdulmutallab was trained and equipped there with his explosives. At the end of January 2010, a Yemeni journalist, Abdulelah Haider Shaye , said he met with al-Awlaki, who said he had met and spoken with Abdulmutallab in Yemen in
13268-562: The system's failure to prevent Abdulmutallab from boarding the aircraft in the first place has been widespread; one critic, former FBI counterterrorism agent Ali Soufan , has said that the "system should have been lighting up like a Christmas tree." United States Senator Joe Lieberman called for the Obama administration to pre-emptively curb terrorism in Yemen and halt plans to repatriate Guantanamo detainees to Yemen. Peter Hoekstra and Congressional Representative Peter T. King also called for
13392-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
13516-416: The trip. Trump publicly criticized the cost of the new embassy and its location, as well as the apparent price received for the sale of the lease of the building in Grosvenor Square, blaming the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama , for making what he referred to as a "bad deal". However, the decision to move the embassy to its new location was made before the Obama administration. Jane Hartley
13640-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
13764-675: Was a "big fan" of al-Awlaki, based on his web traffic. However, there is no clear evidence that the two men met in London. NPR reported that, according to unnamed intelligence officials, Abdulmutallab attended a sermon by al-Awlaki at the Finsbury Park Mosque "in the fall of 2006 or 2007", but this was in error, as al-Awlaki was in prison in Yemen during that period. The Finsbury Park Mosque said neither Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab nor Anwar al-Awlaki had ever been invited to attend NLCM since February 2005. CBS News and The Sunday Telegraph initially reported that Abdulmutallab attended
13888-597: Was also apparently lonely and conflicted." Philip Rucker and Julie Tate of the Washington Post reviewed 300 online postings by Farouk1986 , and found that "the writings demonstrate an acute awareness of Western customs and a worldliness befitting Mutallab's privileged upbringing as a wealthy Nigerian banker's son." Farouk1986 discussed loneliness and marriage in his postings between 2005 and 2007, writing about his "struggle to control" his sex drive and his desire to get married so that he could engage in sexual activity in
14012-415: Was billed as "a lecture on the Islamic position with respect to jihad". During those years, Abdulmutallab "crossed the radar screen" of MI5 , the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, for radical links and "multiple communications" with Islamic extremists. At the age of 21, Abdulmutallab told his parents that he wanted to get married; they refused on the grounds that he had not yet earned
14136-436: Was choosing among nine architectural firms, all "modern" and "upmarket", to replace the ageing embassy headquarters. In March 2009, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations announced that four architectural firms had been selected for the final phase of the design competition. By law, the architect for a U.S. embassy must be an American firm with "numerous security clearances ". In November 2009,
14260-463: Was considered a gifted student, and enjoyed playing PlayStation games and basketball. According to multiple people who knew him at the time, Abdulmutallab became very pious in his teenage years, detaching himself from others his age. He condemned his father's banking profession for charging interest, which is prohibited in Islam, and urged him to quit. For the 2004–05 academic year, Abdulmutallab studied at
14384-523: Was for sharia and Islam to be the rule of law across the world," said one of his classmates at the institute. The Institute obtained an exit visa for him at his request, and on September 21 arranged for him to go the airport to return home. However, he did not leave the country at that time. In October 2009, Abdulmutallab sent his father a text message saying that he was no longer interested in pursuing an MBA in Dubai, and wanted to study sharia and Arabic in
14508-464: Was killed by an unmanned United States drone in Yemen in September 2011, was previously an imam in the U.S. He was associated with three of the 9/11 hijackers, who prayed at his mosque; the 2005 London Bombings ; a 2006 Toronto terror cell ; a 2007 Fort Dix attack plot ; and the 2009 Fort Hood shooter . With a blog and a Facebook page, al-Awlaki had been described as the " bin Laden of the internet." As
14632-444: Was providing spiritual support. According to federal sources, over the year prior to the attack, Abdulmutallab increased his electronic communications with al-Awlaki. Intelligence officials suspect al-Awlaki may have directed Abdulmutallab to Yemen for al-Qaeda training. One government source described intercepted "voice-to-voice communication" between the two during the autumn of 2009. After being arrested, Abdulmutallab reportedly told
14756-518: Was sentenced to 4 life terms plus 50 years without parole. He is incarcerated at ADX Florence , the supermax federal prison in Colorado. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is the youngest of 16 children of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab , a wealthy Nigerian banker and businessman, and his second wife, Aisha (who is from Yemen ). The father was described by The Times in 2009 as being "one of the richest men in Africa." He
14880-796: Was sworn in as the current United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom on 27 May 2022. Winfield House in Regent's Park has been the official residence of the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom since 1955. There are also American consulates general in Belfast and Edinburgh , a Welsh Affairs Office in Cardiff , and a contact centre in Glasgow . Consulates-General which function as an embassy (ie. consul reports to State Department, not
15004-544: Was thought to have used Arabic studies as a pretext for entering the country. Saïd Kouachi , one of the attackers—now deceased—in the Charlie Hebdo shooting , is believed to have been one of Abdulmutallab's neighbors at the Yemeni Arabic language school. On 11 November 2009, British intelligence officials sent the U.S. a cable indicating that a man named "Umar Farouk" had spoken to al-Awlaki, pledging to support jihad , but
15128-485: Was upgraded to an embassy in 1893 and remained at Victoria Street until 1912, when it moved to 4 Grosvenor Gardens . In 1938, the embassy was moved to 1 Grosvenor Square (which later housed part of the Canadian High Commission ). During this time, Grosvenor Square began to accommodate several U.S. government offices, including the headquarters of Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower , and
15252-530: Was valid through September 21). He left Yemen on 7 December, flying to Ethiopia , and then two days later to Ghana . Yemeni officials have said that Abdulmutallab travelled to the mountainous Shabwah Province to meet with "al-Qaeda elements" before leaving Yemen. A video of Abdulmutallab and others training in a desert camp, firing weapons at targets including the Star of David , the British Union Jack flag, and
15376-536: Was valid, or whether he had a British visa that was valid; they did not learn that the British had rejected Abdulmutallab's visa application earlier in 2009. British officials had not informed the United States because the visa application was not denied for a national security purpose. CNN reported that "the many detailed biographical points made by [ internet username Farouk1986 ] match what has been reported about Mutallab's life." The user name posted on Facebook and on Islamic Forum (gawaher.com). On December 28, 2009,
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