CAIS students commended at Qatar’s Arabic debating tournament

Four Centre of Arabic and Islamic Studies (CAIS) students representing Australia have been commended by the organisers of an international universities Arabic debating championship in Doha, Qatar.

The ANU students performed strongly at the gathering in April and beat a team of native Arabic speakers from the American University of the Emirates in a debate about internet censorship and democratisation.

Undergraduate and postgraduate Arabic language students Yara Hussein, Thomas Randall, Derek Baily and Andrew Findell-Aghnatio were led and coached by CAIS PhD scholar Adel Abdel Ghafar.

“I am very proud of the team’s performance,” Mr Abdel Ghafar said.

“Their performance is a reflection on both the students’ debating skills and the world-class quality of the Arabic program at CAIS.”

Organisers said the four-day tournament aimed to foster a culture of discussion and debate by helping shape global citizens of the future and creating tomorrow’s intellectual leaders.

It was the second time ANU had participated in the international event, after their inaugural visit in 2013.

Despite the challenge of debating with native Arabic speakers in all rounds of the competition, the ANU team argued strongly and was commended by other teams and the event organisers. The ANU students also appeared on Qatari TV and in Qatari newspapers.

The third international tournament involved 67 teams representing 33 countries, including non-Arab speaking universities from across the European Union, India, Pakistan, southeast and northeast Asia and the United States.