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