On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:11:08 -0400, Jeff wrote:

* Peter Hendra wrote, On 3/23/2007 4:03 AM:

Actually, that confirms my claim that there is no definitive spelling
in English. The preferred English is now Muhammad, but there are many
others and it is polite to follow whatever convention is used for a
personal name. However, according to the Guardian style guide some
Muslims find the traditional spelling "Mohammed" and varients to be
archaic and disrepectful.

Well, that may be so but there are a great deal of Moslems I have met
with my spelling of my name in Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Oman and
in Indonesia and Malaysia. This is the first I have heard of any
spelling of the name to be disrespectful

This is the first I had heard of that. I don't know if its
specifically British, or new political correctness. Of course, a
newspaper style guide is likely to be responsive to a vocal minority,
so its not clear what the meaning of "many" is.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide...184829,00.html
Muhammad
Muslims consider Muhammad to be the last of God's prophets, who
delivered God's final message. They recognise Moses and Jesus as
prophets also.
The above transliteration is our style for the prophet's name and for
most Muhammads living in Arab countries, though where someone's
preferred spelling is known we respect it, eg Mohamed Al Fayed,
Mohamed ElBaradei. The spelling Mohammed (or variants) is considered
archaic by most British Muslims today, and disrespectful by many of them

i don't know how many Moslems there are in Britain and it really
doesn't matter but there are 230 million in Indonesia where I
sometimes work, and over 11 million in Malaysia, who most likely have
never heard of the Guardian (no disrespect intended) and who would
smile politely at that statement and be amused that people would spend
time on such irrelevancies.

There is a centuries old Sufi story my grandfather once told me (of
many). Please bear with me.

'With reference to the Guardian report"

A man, lost in dense forest amongst steep mountains, stumbled into a
hidden valley and came across a small village where he was made
welcome and given food, drink and a bed for the night.

He noticed that the meat and other food he had been so generously
given was uncooked and discovered to his amazement that the villagers
did not use or even know anything about fire.

To repay his hosts he showed them how to kindle fire by rubbing two
sticks together, one a hardwood, the other soft. He then showed them
how to cook their meat, rendering it tastier and easier to chew. he
taught them bread making, how to harden their spear points in the fire
and that they did not need to go to bed with sunset but could sit
about, sew, talk, tell stories to the young (it was before the
invention of television) and even illustrate Book IV of Plato's
Republic with shadows on the wall from the light oif the fire (He was
a well read man).

Several centuries later, another traveller came across the valley and
found that there were three villages in place of the original one.

Those in the first worshiped a single eternal flame, praying to it and
leaving offerings in the small temple sheltering it. A dedicated
priesthood ensured that the flame never went out and none but the
initiated came near it. They used the fire for nothing else as it was
too sacred for such profanities as cooking.

The second village, about which he had been warned to be a nest of
heretics, did not worship the fire. Instead, they worshiped the memory
of the man who had taught them to make it. They held in reverence a
sacred book that told of his deeds and contained many of his sayings.
They never used fire at all, no longer knew how to make it or what it
could be used for. The priests warned him as he was leaving of the
last village. They were a damned people and he had best avoid contact
with them.

At the last village on his way through the valley, the traveller found
that the inhabitants neither worshiped the fire nor the man who
introduced it. They merely used it for cooking, heating, light and all
the myriad uses that it could be put to.

The point, or the message is.........?

Less I be flamed for plagarism, I would point out that the originator
of this story is unknown. My grandfather was from Crete. This and many
like it are told between Greece and India, especially in those
countries once dominated by the Turkish empire.

Peter