Arabic Vocabulary: Taqiyya, Kitman, and Backsheesh

I had heard of Kitman and Backsheesh at least thirty years ago on a "60 Minutes" episode back before it was a media sin to criticize Moslem culture. After 9/11, and while listening to all the disinformation which emanated from Al Jazeera, I was able to recall the second term but not the first. When I came across Taqiyya in the link above, I found it was a new one on me.

Together, Taqiyya and Kitman constitute the practice of withholding information or lying to non-Moslems to protect Islam.

After 9/11, I went searching on-line for the custom of precautionary lying by Moslems, knowing it existed and that there was a word for it, but could find it nowhere. I finally came across it today, by accident, while web surfing on Blog Explosion.

I did find Backsheesh fairly easily. As it happens, the word is in many on-line dictionaries with various spellings, but wherever I look, it is merely defined as a tip, gratuity, or fringe benefit. Only when you look at the actual usage of Backsheesh in literature and news reports do you realize that it actually means a culturally sanctioned custom of awarding kickbacks and bribes in Moslem countries which is normally considered unethical in western lands. See example here.

Because of the self concealing nature of Taqiyya and Kitman, few people outside of Islam know about any of these practices.

Of course, the Moslems really don't need these concepts. After all, we have the concept of political correctness to prevent us from learning such things.

HT: Princess Kimberley