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An establicon agrees with me on how to spell name of Nigerian terrorist
Like me, Victor Hanson shortens the terrorist’s last name to the more readily pronounceable “Mutallab,” referring to him as “Mr. Mutallab” and “Abdul Mutallab.” Oddly enough, almost no one seems to have picked up on the fact that that the name of the terrorist’s father is Alhaji Umaru Mutallab. The father’s last name is Mutallab, not Abdulmutallab So why is everyone giving the son a different last name from the father? My guess is that some wire service or government official inadvertently combined the terrorist’s middle name Abdul with his last name Mutallab into Abdulmutallab, and then everyone else followed along like sheep. However, even if Abdulmutallab were his correct last name, I think we need to stop being so robotically and multiculturally deferential to foreign tongues, and instead take sensible steps to fit outlandish or overlong or difficult-to-pronounce foreign names into spellings that are serviceable in our tongue. Fortunately, the need for such re-writing doesn’t even arise in this case, since Mutallab is evidently his correct last name or at least an acceptable version of his last name. Combining Abdul and Mutallab into one word is arguably incorrect and at the least unnecessary. Yet the whole world has gone along with this foolishness, imposing on themselves and everyone the use of an overly long and arduous-to-pronounce name.
Also, since everyone is so set on being politically correct and giving the supposed full name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, why are they shortening his name from what is apparently his true full name as was given in some earlier press reports : Abdul Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab? As far as I’m concerned, his first name is not Umar, but Abdul (which is also one of his middle names). Email entry |