Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Oct 8, 2010 at 2:05am
I've been holding fast on this because I can't stand being told what to do by CAIR. But I've received no small number of messages of late proposing that the scholarly and linguistic arguments do weigh in favor of the spelling "Muslim." It's silly to adopt a position that is in fact indefensible, or less defensible, just because CAIR doesn't like it. Bill, I defer to you.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
"Moslem" equals Disney and flying carpets--fun Islam. "Muslim" not so much. Go with Moslem.
Jul '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
Mahommedan,was good enough for Churchill.
Aug '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
you don't need a musselmen to tell which way wind blows
Sep '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
Darnit flown ya beat me. Not to make light of a serious subject, but, Musselman has always been my personal preference.
Sep '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
This really interests me because as an editor by trade and type I've always remembered quirks of spelling, variances and such. I distinctly being taught in the sixth grade (1964-65) and reading in the Encyclopedia Britannica and other reference books of the day that the spelling was "Moslem." Sometime after I became a university press editor (1987), I noticed that the spelling had changed to "Muslim." My guess is that it reflects the rising prominence of the Black Muslims (meaning Nation of Islam) in the mid- to late 1960s and beyond. Any thoughts/push back on that?
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
Muslim is the better spelling, I think, as it's Arabic (which has neither an 'o' or 'e' sound). Moslem came out of British India with a more Persian vowelling since the dominant Muslim culture in India was Persianate. Moslem may have more antiquity in English, so if you like being antiquarian, keep that, but otherwise, I think Muslim makes more sense since it's an Arabic word, and since that spelling has been around since (let me check) 1777, you're not engaged in egregious pandering.
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
Right, then! It's settled.
May '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
Musselmen sounds kinda butch, but can they eat shellfish? I much prefer Mohammedan. As a parallel to Christian.
Aug '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
Inshallah bro.
May '10
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
This reminds me of "Taoism" vs "taoism", "tao te ching" vs "dao de ching" or "dao de jing"... and on and on. Let's just accept that some languages don't translate well into English.
I use "Muslim" simply because it works. The alternate spellings of that and "Mohammed" serve your point, Claire, that not all Muslims are the same.
Re: Muslim Versus Moslem: Bill Walsh, Please Arbitrate
So you also call Jews Mosaics or Davidians or Abrahamites? I kid. But the analogy to "Christian" is problematic because Christians actually worship Christ, and while Muslims revere Muhammad as the perfect man, it's utterly wrong to say they worship him. The better analogy is to, say, Zoroastrianism, in which (as far as I know, which isn't far), Zoroaster is a prophet but not worshipped as divine. But why not Muslim? It's shorter, more accurate, and what they call themselves. If you need to feel superior through your word choice, remember that it literally means "one who submits." You can work with that, if that's your bag.