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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
3. To a certain extent is it impossible to altogether seperate language from religion.  The standard greeting in Hebrew "Shalom" conveys a greeting with religious overtones.  In English, we say "bless you" when someone sneezes - again a common express with religious overtones. [/quote]

I think this is a good point, but the greeting "Baruch ha-ba'ah" (welcome - literally "blessed is the person who comes") might be a better example, just because "shalom" is not, in my experience used much as a standalone greeting in modern Hebrew.  Of course, the standard way of saying "what's up?" is "mah shlomcha" or "how is your shalom?", which comes to the same thing that pp pointed out.

This is a good example of the many, many ways that I don't thing an Arabic/Hebrew charter would work, however cool the concept might be.  When I lived in Egypt, I ---- as a Jew ---- routinely greeted my Muslim friends and mixed groups of Copts and Muslims by saying "as-salamu aliekum."  I also learned to respond to the daily question about whether I was a Muslim by saying "not yet" rather than "no", and I was invited to come wash and pray multiple times a day at work --- by people I cared about, considered friends and spent a lot of time with.  I realize this may sound coercive and unpleasant, but it wasn't, it was just kind of the way things were and it was meant kindly.  So... untangling religion, language and culture can be tough.[/quote]

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