[mhd]

The language matters less than the book or teacher presenting it. While some languages might make it a bit harder on the instructor, the inverse is a lot worse for a beginner.

And the quality of the book often depends on the prior knowledge of the fledgling programmer and his/her ambitions (important for the topics of exercises etc.).

It's hard to give an easy answer here. Scheme and Python are quite popular in this area, but not everyone should start programming by reading SICP.