Editing Arabic (section)

=== Arabic alphabet and nationalism ===
There have been many instances of national movements to convert Arabic script into Latin script or to Romanize the language. Currently, the only Arabic variety to use Latin script is [[Maltese language|Maltese]].

====Lebanon====
The Beirut newspaper ''La Syrie'' pushed for the change from Arabic script to Latin letters in 1922. The major head of this movement was [[Louis Massignon]], a French Orientalist, who brought his concern before the Arabic Language Academy in Damascus in 1928. Massignon's attempt at Romanization failed as the academy and population viewed the proposal as an attempt from the Western world to take over their country. [[Sa'id al-Afghani|Sa'id Afghani]], a member of the academy, mentioned that the movement to Romanize the script was a [[Zionism|Zionist]] plan to dominate Lebanon.<ref name="shrivtiel179">{{cite book|last=Shrivtiel|first=Shraybom|title=The Question of Romanisation of the Script and The Emergence of Nationalism in the Middle East|date=1998|publisher=Mediterranean Language Review|pages=179–196}}</ref><ref name="shirvtiel188">Shrivtiel, p. 188</ref> [[Said Akl]] created a Latin-based alphabet for [[Lebanese Arabic|Lebanese]] and used it in a newspaper he founded, ''Lebnaan'', as well as in some books he wrote.

====Egypt====
After the period of colonialism in Egypt, Egyptians were looking for a way to reclaim and re-emphasize Egyptian culture. As a result, some Egyptians pushed for an Egyptianization of the Arabic language in which the formal Arabic and the colloquial Arabic would be combined into one language and the Latin alphabet would be used.<ref name="shrivtiel179" /><ref name="shirvtiel188" /> There was also the idea of finding a way to use [[Hieroglyphics]] instead of the Latin alphabet, but this was seen as too complicated to use.<ref name="shrivtiel179" /><ref name="shirvtiel188" />

A scholar, [[Salama Musa]] agreed with the idea of applying a Latin alphabet to Arabic, as he believed that would allow Egypt to have a closer relationship with the West. He also believed that Latin script was key to the success of Egypt as it would allow for more advances in science and technology. This change in alphabet, he believed, would solve the problems inherent with Arabic, such as a lack of written vowels and difficulties writing foreign words that made it difficult for non-native speakers to learn.<ref name="shrivtiel179" /><ref name="shirvtiel188" /> [[Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed|Ahmad Lutfi As Sayid]] and [[Muhammad Mustafa Azmi|Muhammad Azmi]], two Egyptian intellectuals, agreed with Musa and supported the push for Romanization.<ref name="shrivtiel179" /><ref name="shrivtiel189">Shrivtiel, p. 189</ref>

The idea that Romanization was necessary for modernization and growth in Egypt continued with Abd Al-Aziz Fahmi in 1944. He was the chairman for the Writing and Grammar Committee for the Arabic Language Academy of Cairo.<ref name="shrivtiel179" /><ref name="shrivtiel189" /> This effort failed as the Egyptian people felt a strong cultural tie to the Arabic alphabet.<ref name="shrivtiel179" /><ref name="shrivtiel189" /> In particular, the older Egyptian generations believed that the Arabic alphabet had strong connections to Arab values and history, due to the long history of the Arabic alphabet (Shrivtiel, 189) in Muslim societies.