Egyptian police kill 40 militants after deadly tourist bus explosion

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Daily News

One day after a bomb killed four people aboard a tour in Giza, Egyptian police have killed dozens of militants during security raids on their hideouts, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.

The raids killed “40 terrorists” in Giza and North Sinai on Saturday morning, according to a statement from the ministry, which indicated the terrorists were planning a series of attacks on tourist sites, churches and military personnel.

Police killed 30 of the militants during two morning raids in Giza, while the remaining 10 were killed in El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, the Interior Ministry said.

“A group of terrorists were planning to carry out a series of aggressive attacks targeting state institutions, particularly economic ones, as well as tourism … and Christian places of worship,” the statement read.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/ny-news-egypt-police-kill-militants-20181229-story.html

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My wife was considering a sabbatical in Cairo to study Arabic. I'm thinking "no"...

[ansible]

1. Egypt is still in turmoil after 2011

I think civil war is inevitable there. The society is so deeply divided between extremists who believe islam is the key to saving Egypt from being more than just a tourist attraction and moderates supporting the military government.

[Igel]

2. It's a tough choice.

Egypt's sort of the de facto standard if you move away from "pure" Arabic because it's large and exports a lot of (pop) cultural materials. It's where you'd want to study.

In some ways, it's better to take really intensive Arabic over the summer in the US and then head there, or just keep it up here. I've found that often overseas courses mix foreigners. It's one thing to say, "This is how it's spoken," but it's another thing when it comes to correcting mistakes. In Czech summer school the French, Bulgarians, Russians, Germans, Italians and even the British in the same classroom with me all had different pronunciation errors that needed attention, and often had different grammatical errors. It was hard to flip into English for me to avoid Czech, but at the same time it was hard for the instructor to use English to help me--because she'd have the same expectation of helping the French, Bulgarians, Russians, Germans, and Italians in *their* native languages.

If it's a class with just Yanks, then it might be good in Cairo, esp. if she wants to learn a vernacular instead of the "pure" standard.

Arabic is a language with extensive diglossia. If she's not aware of the difference between the standard, classical, and the vernaculars, it's a sine qua non prior to any real commitment.