Sunday, September 15, 2019

A primer of Muslim names, Islamic terms and Urdu words for journalists, writers


It is the basic rule of journalism to ask a person--his name, how he or she spell it, how it's pronounced.

If someone's name is Hamid, you call him 'Hamid' as in 'Haamid', NOT Hameed.

Both are different names. Journalists, writers are supposed to know it. That's too basic, too simple.

And, for those born and brought up in India, who have lived here, and could pronounce Jean and Jose, perfectly, but don't know Rashid and Rasheed are different names, write 'Hazi' or 'Burkha', don't even know dictionaries in Roman exist, a primer needed.

*It is Burqa, not Burkha. If you aren't comfortable how to speak certain letters (Kaaf and Qaaf) you can at least write, correctly. No! There are hundreds of such words in newspapers. On TV channels, anchors act is if they are from another planet, especially, when they take Muslim names.

This will start from tomorrow: It will be quite long, will be constantly updated.