Muslim or Moslem

Muslim or Moslem

From Media Indonesia

The word "Muslim" is often spelled and pronounced "Moslem" in English. The spelling "Moslem" is often found in newspapers and pronounced as such on radio and TV broadcasts in Indonesia. This spelling is also used in stickers. This can be regarded a trivial matter but it can have some impact.

As far as I know, this spelling was long dropped. In an Islamic journal published in Pakistan in the 1950s and 1960s, the spelling was criticized and dismissed as unfavorable with incorrect connotations, just like the spelling "Mahomet."

In the introduction to his translation of the Koran into English (Vermont, USA, 1985), Dr. Thomas B. Irving, an American of the Islamic faith, also criticized the spelling, stating that the spelling "Moslem" is usually used by western circles outside the Islamic world.

Today, the popular English spelling is "Muslim" or "Muslims". The same spelling is also used in publications like Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, and other English scientific literature.

Some English-Indonesian dictionaries and Webster's still use the unfashionable spelling. While Oxford dictionaries use the word "Muslim". The first edition of Roeder's Who's Who in Indonesia, used the spelling "Moslem". But in the second print, they corrected it and used "Muslim".

ALI AUDAH

Bogor, West Java