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Why Do People Say Muslim Now Instead of Moslem?
http://historynewsnetwork.org/ ^ | 7-8-02 | Yii-Ann Christine Chen

Posted on 08/05/2016 8:05:39 PM PDT by disndat

Is it Muslim or Moslem?

When Baby Boomers were children it was Moslem. The American Heritage Dictionary (1992) noted,"Moslem is the form predominantly preferred in journalism and popular usage. Muslim is preferred by scholars and by English-speaking adherents of Islam." No more. Now, almost everybody uses Muslim.

According to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies,"Moslem and Muslim are basically two different spellings for the same word." But the seemingly arbitrary choice of spellings is a sensitive subject for many followers of Islam. Whereas for most English speakers, the two words are synonymous in meaning, the Arabic roots of the two words are very different. A Muslim in Arabic means"one who gives himself to God," and is by definition, someone who adheres to Islam. By contrast, a Moslem in Arabic means"one who is evil and unjust" when the word is pronounced, as it is in English, Mozlem with a z.

For others, this spelling differentiation is merely a linguistic matter, with the two spellings a result of variation in transliteration methods. Both Moslem and Muslim are used as nouns. But some writers use Moslem when the word is employed as an adjective.

Journalists switched to Muslim from Moslem in recent years under pressure from Islamic groups. But the use of the word Moslem has not entirely ceased. Established institutions which used the older form of the name have been reluctant to change. The American Moslem Foundation is still the American Moslem Foundation (much as the NAACP is still the NAACP--the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). The journal The Moslem World--published by the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut--is still The Moslem World.

Sources

Center for Nonproliferation Studies Religious Studies Program, University of Wyoming - See more at: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/524#sthash.BFbbwDCa.dpuf


TOPICS: Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: asshat; flashback; moochelle; moslem; muslim
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To: disndat

We always called them targets.


21 posted on 08/05/2016 8:15:42 PM PDT by GunHoardingCapitalist (Join me in the world of next Tuesday!)
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To: disndat

“Mohammedan” is the best term: they worship a terrorist and a pedophile called Mohammed.


22 posted on 08/05/2016 8:17:12 PM PDT by ErikJohnsky
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To: disndat
LINK to the article.
23 posted on 08/05/2016 8:19:02 PM PDT by disndat
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To: disndat

I still say and write “Moslem.” It was good enough when I was young, and I never heard a compelling reason to change that.


24 posted on 08/05/2016 8:19:36 PM PDT by Berosus (I wish I had as much faith in God as liberals have in government.)
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To: ErikJohnsky; All

“mohammedan” works just as well. Anything but what they want. Or demand.


25 posted on 08/05/2016 8:20:36 PM PDT by disndat
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To: disndat

Muslim was what backdrops in stage presentations were made of. Moslem were camel-jockies with muslim wrapped around their heads.


26 posted on 08/05/2016 8:21:18 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (#GuiltyAsHELLary2016 #KimJungHill)
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To: disndat

I say Moslem with a z because Moslems don’t like it and it sounds more Medieval.


27 posted on 08/05/2016 8:22:48 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.)
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To: disndat

Hey hey hey!! I find myself in the proverbial catbird seat! I call them moslems exclusively. And now I find out they don’t like it!


28 posted on 08/05/2016 8:23:47 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up....)
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To: disndat
A Muslim in Arabic means “one who gives himself to God” …
No etymological sources agree with that. The meaning is “one who submits”.
By contrast, a Moslem in Arabic means “one who is evil and unjust” when the word is pronounced, as it is in English, Mozlem with a z. …
Well then, they mean the same thing.

Although not parallel, I am reminded of how the communists in China suddenly changed from Wade-Giles transliteration to Hanyu Pinyin, and Mao Tse-tung quickly became Mao Zedong, Teng Hsiao-p’ing became Deng Xiaoping, ad nauseam.
29 posted on 08/05/2016 8:24:44 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: OrangeHoof
Muslim was what backdrops in stage presentations were made of.

Muslim was what Moochelle wrapped herself in. Kinda looks like a tablecloth.


30 posted on 08/05/2016 8:26:09 PM PDT by disndat
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To: disndat
In "The Black Muslims in America" (C. Eric Lincoln 1961) and available at Internet Archive:

This study of the Black Muslims has been an interesting and fascinating adventure, full of surprises and of social and religious inconformities. I soon discovered, for example, that these were no ordinary Moslems, nor did they wish to be taken as such. To distinguish themselves from the small Moslem enclaves that have existed in a few American cities for generations, they chose the spelling "Muslim" rather than the more familiar "Moslem."
Further, these Muslims emphasize that they are "Black Men," black as the antithesis of white. They do not subscribe to the familiar Moslem doctrine that a common submission to Allah erases and transcends all racial awareness. On the contrary, they do not conceive the white man as capable of being a Muslim. "By nature he is incapable!"

It is possible the change was made in the AP Stylebook to hide from the general public the difference between the Black Muslim "Nation of Islam" and the Moslems.

31 posted on 08/05/2016 8:26:09 PM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: Olog-hai

Does that apply to Peking-Beijing?


32 posted on 08/05/2016 8:29:50 PM PDT by disndat
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To: disndat

She’s a Moozlim.


33 posted on 08/05/2016 8:29:52 PM PDT by Heart-Rest (Make America Great Again!)
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To: disndat

I prefer musloid.


34 posted on 08/05/2016 8:31:30 PM PDT by Huck (This is my opinion. There are many like it but this one is mine.)
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To: Heart-Rest

That moozlim bit my sister. It was disguised as a tablecloth in a cheese barn she was visiting.


35 posted on 08/05/2016 8:32:14 PM PDT by disndat
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To: disndat

Mahometan.

(Gibbon, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”).


36 posted on 08/05/2016 8:33:09 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: disndat

It’s actually pronounced that way in Arabic. The change was sort of like when Peiping became Peking and then Beijing. Completely distorting pronunciation of foreign words is a hallmark to this day of the British. You’ll never convince them that Paella isn’t pronounced like Payola. “Muslim” means “one who submits”. “mu” plus the root of a verb makes it into the noun for the person who does the action.


37 posted on 08/05/2016 8:35:04 PM PDT by katana
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To: disndat
Muslim means “one who gives himself to God,”

Moslem means “one who is evil and unjust”

38 posted on 08/05/2016 8:35:23 PM PDT by donna (No one should be allowed to become a citizen or even a resident if they support Sharia Law.)
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To: disndat

Mussulmans.


39 posted on 08/05/2016 8:37:11 PM PDT by rfp1234 (Hail Obambi, our Deer Leader)
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To: disndat

Know why there were no muslims in Star Trek?

It’s about the future.


40 posted on 08/05/2016 8:39:53 PM PDT by umgud (ban all infidelaphobics)
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