Honestly, I found what your pastor said is totally not surprising.
The only thing I would have had guessed the inclination of studying the Arabic language is not only for Islamic religious studies, but also could have been economic link.
In Malaysia, schools have options to learn religious studies for Muslims, but other faiths and religion still do have their freedom of religious practices.
Well, at least during my younger days.
But these days the political correctness is so wide spread that even significant history (so that we learn the lesson / the moral behind it) is being wiped off from the books in schools. There's less and less important things to learn in school these days.
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