"Allahu Akbar"

An inherently sinister cry?

On both sides of the Atlantic, controversy over the call of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is greater’) is in the news again. As part of the coverage of the wider movement of U.S. campus protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and American support for Israel, there has been some debate about a four-second clip of a group of protestors shouting “Allahu Akbar” at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). Over in the UK, a newly elected Leeds city councillor for the Green Party- Mothin Ali- was filmed shouting “Allahu Akbar” after vowing that he and his supporters would “raise the voice” of Gaza and Palestine. For some, the call is seemingly portrayed as inherently sinister, while others seem to view it as entirely benign. To quote the sarcasm of Washington Post editorial board member Shadi Hamid: “Oh my, students are saying ‘God is great’ in Arabic. The horror.”

Simply put, the truth lies somewhere in between. The significance of the call of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (conventionally referred to in Arabic as the takbir) very much depends on context and the discourse surrounding it.