I was watching the news this morning (5:30am!) and they were talking about the guys who had planned to blowup the planes in mid-air. I'm not gonna bore you with comments on that whole situation cause that's CNN and *gasp* Fox News' job.
This post is about the single sentence she made when discussing the characteristics of the terrorists. Now I don't blame her, she's just a face reading a script, so my finger pointing are aimed at the station writers. She "reported" that the alleged terrorists were mostly British citizens or residents, had ties to Pakistan, and call the PC Police - all had Muslim names!
If I was Muslim I'd be unnerved that my religion has officially gained the stereotype of Terrorist. I'm sure they yearn for the good ole days when people simply ignorantly lumped them up with Indians behind the register at convenience stores saying things like "Thank you, come again" or "Slim Jim good for you, slurpee red or blue"
But the real issue here is the term "Muslim Names". Believe or not there are people who believe in Santa Clause or spin a dreidle for 8 nights who live in the middle east. Kwanza... Probably not, but the point is that people who live in the middle east aren't classified as Muslim, they're middle eastern!
Unless your name is Martin Luther or John Paul, there is no such thing as a Christian name. I've heard that term thrown around before but Christianity cannot be claimed soley by any of the Latin based languages in the world.
But back to this lady's statement. Would be worse if she had said all the terrorists had "black people names"? There's no such thing officially as a black person name, but I know enough LaQuishas to make a case for an official classification. What about white people names (which I have and dammit all my kids are gonna have too!)? Is that an English name or a white people name? Maybe congress should argue about the separation of church and name?
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*I also realize "white people name" is bad English, or is it bad religion?
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But there ARE such things as Muslim names!!! All the Abduls and Akbars Raheems, Rasheeds all have something to do with Allah. Islam the word means surrendering as in submission to Allah. And any person who does such a thing is hereby called a Muslim (one surrendered to Allah). Now I really didn't care enough to read or even hear the actual news clip, you may have a point if they threw other Middle Eastern, Arabic names in with the Muslim ones. But names like Abubakr and Omar, Fatima, Latifah, 99.99% are in reference to the Prophet, his caliphs (the succeeeding leaders) and his family members (wife and daughters). Many Muslim people continue the Tradition by naming their children after these honored people. Sometimes names such as Adbul- Nasser are completely related to Allah because Abdul the name means "servant of" and is usual followed by one of the 99 names or attributes of Allah (in this case Nasser means "the Helper"). It's kinda similar to the Christian or Jewish use of Jehovah Jireh (God will provide), Jehovah Nissi (God is my banner) or even the John Pauls of your post. But there are honestly a lot more common names that could be considered Christian/Jewish either because of its meaning and definition or because of its History. Names like Stephen (1st Christian Martyr), Michael, James, Johnathan, Jesse, and the list goes on. Even names like Christine mean things like "anointed Christian" and there are like 100 variations and spellings of the name including Tina and Crystal, for instance. I'm not Muslim I just know a great deal about the religion and people and even took a class at school. But hey maybe some Muslims are offended, you never know. But I'm betting that the majority is more irritated by the few that kill and terrorize in the "NAME" of Allah.
I mixed up the Prophet's 1st wife's name which is actually Khadijah, with that of Queen Latifah since that was the character she played on "Living Single"
I guess my argument should have been - should the reporter say "Muslim Names" or "Arabic Names" ?
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