In the 1990s, the Arab sociopolitical scene captured people's attention again as concerns grew over the invasion of Kuwait by Ṣaddām Ḥusayn (1990), the consequent First Gulf War (1990-1991) and the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, putting the Arab-Israeli conflict in the forefront. Other Arab countries like Tunisia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia enjoyed relative stability and now had become part of a larger political scenario.

Arabic was given a far more prominent position in Western societies than had previously been the case. Nielsen pointed out: ‘immigration, the abundance and availability of new media in Arabic, and the widely used interactive communication technology put new focus on choice of language varieties to consider in teaching, as well as on the content and the kinds of teaching materials to use’ (Nielsen 2009, p. 147). This situation also influenced the Arab world as some scholars in contact with Europe or the United States injected new life in the debates that kept Arab TAFL scholars busy. For example, attention was drawn to the teaching of Arabic to heritage learners (al-Munaẓẓama 1990, 1992), but also to Arabic language proficiency and reference levels (Badawi 1992a). In the 1990s, Arabic continued on its path of globalization and moved on from the questions discussed in the previous decade, when Turkī Rābiḥ inquired whether Arabic would become an international language. In 1996, scholars gathered in Kuala Lumpur to discuss Arabic language challenges of the twenty-first century, while at the turn of the century, Ṣāliḥ Balʿayd wrote an article entitled ‘al-Luġa al-ʿarabiyya ḫāriǧ ḥudūdi-hā’ (‘Arabic outside its borders’), reporting Arabic language diffusion in Africa and Southeast Asia (cf. Balʿayd). Arabic was leaving the Arab region to spread through other countries in different contexts. During this time, ISESCO director-general representative Muḥammad al-Ġumārī pointed out that Arabic was not only the language of Arabs, but also the language of every Muslim, since it was the language of their Holy Book (al-Munaẓẓama 1992).

The spread of the Arabic language and culture remained the most important objective of TAFL experts, educators and decision makers. In addition, according to some scholars (al-Ġumārī in al-Munaẓẓama 1992, p. 144), Arabic was the best means for the transmission of Islamic community conscience (waʿī al-umma al-islāmiyya) and the comprehension of its culture (fahm madlūlāt al-taqāfa).