Arabic

Arabic is the national language of several countries in the Middle East, northern African, and is the written language of the Qu'ran.

Why Learn Arabic
http://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com/guest-post-5-reasons-choose-arabic-next-language/ http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/reasonstolearnarabic.htm
 * Lindsay Does Languages guest post on learning Arabic. Key points: simplicity of the writing system, the friendliness of the Arab world towards language learners, grammar is simple for the individual, its relevancy in the modern world, and the many dialects giving variety.
 * Omniglot article on learning Arabic. Key points: its simplicity and writing system, economic reasons, and number of individuals who speak Arabic.

Difficulties
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2005/06/im_trying_to_learn_arabic.html
 * Slate column on the difficulties of learning Arabic. Key points: pronunciation, alphabet, and the major dialectal differences, especially Modern Standard Arabic being compared to Latin in usage.