[ Thanks to AbdulHadi for this link.
]
“The technology for running Arabic natively on Linux was
unveiled at GITEX 2002 in Dubai, the region’s largest technology
trade show. Marking a milestone in local open source software in
the Middle East, the Arabic support in Linux is a result of a
massive effort by the project team at IBM’s Egyptian Technology
Development Centre in Cairo.“The team in Egypt has successfully adapted the core components
that are crucial to make Linux capable of handling Arabic text
properly, and has released a number of important standards and
applications, now placed into the hands of the open source
community.“The open source community was briefed on developments in Arabic
support for Linux at the recent ‘Ready for Real Business’ Linux
symposium in Bahrain that IBM hosted to drive interest and input
from the developer and end user community, prior to a public
announcement…”