There are 28 letters which all have three different forms to them - depending on where they are in a word. Some letters cannot be connected to other letters on the left side, but can be connected on the right - unless of course they are following a non-connecting letter. There are only three vowels but they each have long and short sounds - so six vowels, really. And the diacritical marks? There are too many of them. Oh - and just to make it a little bit more challenging - do it backwards - the opposite direction from everything that you have ever read or written. Right to left versus left to right.
A couple of the letters - no, quite a few, actually - in the Arabic alphabet have no equivalent sound in English. They are gutteral sounds that I have never learned how to do. I can't do the spitting thing that men can do - that deep, "hawking one up sound." Nor can I roll my tongue with an "r." Making grunting sounds from the side of my mouth just does not come naturally... The writing I enjoy, the reading I am doing okay with, but the speaking part is close to impossible for me.
This says, "Sabra," but is missing the vowel sound - the fatHa - over the last letter, the "r" [because I could not figure out how to get it there]: