The third Languages and Translation Conference moved into its second day on Wednesday with papers on Islamic translation, translation training and research, and the multiple trends in translation methodology. Abdul Hamid Elaywa presented a paper in which he argued that Qur'an translations were in fact “translations of its interpretations”. “Qur'an translators do not have access to the Holy Book's language the way it was in the time of the Prophet, that's why they turn to Qur'an interpretations, which differ from one interpreter to another,” Elaywa said. Hanem Al-Farahati presented a paper on translation methods better suited to religious and cultural elements when translating from Arabic to English, while Hadir Abu Al-Najat introduced a paper on the identification of target materials in which she discussed how the translation of literary works into English can change the stereotyping of Muslims positively or negatively. Abu Al-Najat also looked into the role of those works in curbing Islamophobia and highlighted some of the most important, recently-translated literary works. Abdul Raouf Hussein of the University of Leeds in the UK discussed the composition of texts and how a native reader's reaction in the original language may differ from that of a native of the target language of the translated text. Mahmoud Ismael Saleh discussed the use of computer translation programs. The importance of introducing translation into the education of English language teachers in the Arab World was the subject of Antar Sulhi's paper, a discussion which, he hoped, would highlight the role of translation as an educational tool. Effat Khuqair chose to focus on the translation of children's literature. “We need to make greater use of Western literary works for children by translating them into Arabic,” Khuqair said.
