The University of Georgia has become one of only a handful of universities in the South to offer a major in Arabic - and the only university in Georgia.
Within a few years, about 20 students a year will complete Arabic majors, said Alan Godlas, a religion professor and one of the university's Arabic teachers. The University System Board of Regents approved the new major in August.
Arabic is the native language for about 200 million people in the Middle East and North Africa, and 200 million more people use the language as the liturgical language of Islam, Godlas said.
UGA students have been able to take Arabic courses for more than a decade, but interest in the language skyrocketed after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center towers and flew a plane into the Pentagon in 2001.
"One of the reasons that came out that we were susceptible to such an attack was because of the delay in translating a lot of the intelligence," Godlas said. "It wasn't that we didn't have a lot of reports. It was that we didn't have the people to translate them, so there was a backlog."
Students study Arabic for a variety of reasons, Godlas said - some are ex-military personnel who became interested in the language while stationed in an Arabic-speaking country such as Iraq, some are looking to government work after graduation.
Some, like Annum Masroor of Savannah, study Arabic because it's their heritage. Masroor's parents are from Pakistan, and she grew up reading, writing and hearing Arabic.
"I've always thought it a beautiful, complex language - poetic, and every word has so many meanings," the junior said.
Masroor also is studying international affairs and also might use the language in her work later on, she said.
Studying Arabic will help Daniel Jackson understand people in one of the most important regions of the world, he said.
It's the language the Koran is written in, said Jackson, a sophomore from Marietta.
"Studying the language is going to help me understand those people and their religion," he said. "It's a widely spoken language that will help me understand a large portion of people on the planet, and it's a language that's relevant to some of the more important issues going on in the world today."
"Turn on the TV news, and two issues you see a lot are oil and terrorism," he said.
The popular image of Arabic countries is that the people are anti-American, but reality is much different, said Kenneth Honerkamp, like Godlas a religion professor who teaches Arabic.
"We hear about anti-American sentiment, but it's people most Americans would never meet if they went abroad," he said.
"They are welcoming, very, very happy to have us there," said Honerkamp, a former director of the Arabic Language Institute in Fez, Morocco.
The study of Arabic can help erase such misconceptions, Godlas said.
"I think an understanding of Arabic will help future leaders of our country to be able to chart a policy that can better solve the problems that are arising," he said.
About 100 students are studying first-year Arabic, 60 are studying second-year and 20 are in their third year, about 180 total, Godlas said.