What’s in a Name?

Last updated on: December 8, 2011 at 11:35 pm by Muslimah Media Watch

What’s in a Name? 2011-12-08T23:35:26-04:00 Muslimah Media Watch

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As you may have noticed, we’ve changed the name and site of the blog. I just added an ‘h’. That lack of an ‘h’ was really killing me. Sorry for the confusion for our loyal readers! I know that “muslima” and “muslimah” are the same things, but I just like it better with an ‘h’!

Anyway, I decided to Google the word “Muslima.” And to my surprise, I saw that there was an UrbanDictionary.com entry for the word! Huh! I took a look, and saw some pretty decent definitions, my favorite being:

“A muslim woman who is cool and knows how to socialize. She’s on her game and keeps it moving and dresses well. An educated muslim woman in her 20’s who’s making a difference. My homegirls.”

Some of the other definitions irked me a bit because they sounded sort of preachy and because of poor spelling (yeah, I’m one of those people). Really, the entry could have just read “A Muslim woman” and left it at that, without getting into all the religious obligations and emotional language.

And that’s what the first entry for “Muslimah” turned up: “A Muslim woman.” But the second entry was what really pissed me off:

“A woman who’s supposed to be a whore for everyone in her husband’s family, but has to appear very modest to outsiders, and therefore uses a a mobile tent(burka) whenever she goes out.
These women usually satisfy the urges of a great many men(considering each muslim family usually has 5 to 10 kids, depending on the extend of welfare in the country), but can’t claim credit for it because if they tell about it to others they will be punished for defaming their family in a noble Islamic ritual called honor killing.”

Way to include all the negative stereotypes about Muslim women in there, jackass! The “burka” and “honor killing” links you to similarly stereotypical and Islamophobic entries on UrbanDictionary.com. The definition was given by a member named “theoneverdies.” If you read it as “Theo never dies,” we can assume they’re referring to Theo van Gogh, the director who collaborated with Ayaan Hirsi Ali on a controversial movie about Muslim women. Mr. van Gogh was murderd a few years ago by someone who defines himself as a Muslim.

Take a look at the rest of “theoneverdies’” definitions. They’re all really postitive (hint: sarcasm). S/he has given a definition for “koranimal” and “Theo van Gogh” is painted as a crusader instead of a racist.

Anyway, I couldn’t find anywhere to report this, because UrbanDictionary.com is a dictionary made up of slang provided by members. The best I could do was click on the “thumbs down” sign to express my disapproval. (sigh)

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