The last time I remember dancing ecstatically at a club was in a smoky basement at Chiro's in London. It was Arabic music night Live and it caught my friends and me by surprise. We were joined by three Iraqui kurds at our tight corner table and it wasn't long before we were singing along and swaying with our hands outstretched.

That night, I fired up WinMX and did a search for "Arabic" and MP3. I ended up with something by Amr Diab - "Habibi Ya Nour El Ayn." Right now it's blasting out of the tiny tinny speaker in the back of my Treo.

I consider it my duty as an American to enjoy more Arabic culture. A friend quoted George Orwell to me the other day - "We have always been at war with Eastasia." We might evolve beyond that by bridging the gap with culture, speaking the same language, sharing information and human expression past politics.

UC Berkely offers Arabic I for $435, starting in September (15 weeks, 45 total hours). MIT's Open Courseware offers Antropology of the Middle East and Middle East in the 20th Century - those probably aren't as fun as some good Arabic classic tracks. "Arabic" is a big classification - there's a lot to learn in there.