I think this is worth crowd-sourcing. The library at my alma mater opens ridiculously late on Sunday so I wasn’t able to check out old AP Style Guides for changes to entries on “Muhammad” in order to add to Tony Woodlief’s insight. But here is the write-up in the 2011 edition:
Muhammad the chief prophet and central figure of the Islamic religion, Prophet Muhammad. Use other spellings only if preferred by a specific person for his own name or in a title or the name of an organization.
In her article at American Thinker Johanna Markind wrote that the AP Style Book she referred to (her article was from 2010) did not designate the proper way to address Muhammad. I’d like to see the exact copy to compare it to the 2011 entry which, by using italics, indicates that Muhammad is to be prefaced by Prophet by anyone whose media position requires them to adhere to the AP Style Guide.
To compare, the 2005 entry reads:
Muhammad The prophet and founder of the Islamic religion. Use other spellings only if preferred by a specific person for his own name or in a title or the name of an organization.
And the 2000 entry reads the same.
If Woodlief’s analysis is correct, it seems that the most likely explanation is that changes have been made at the tippy-top of the gate-keeper’s perch. This opens the floor to a lot of questions.
There are biases in reporting news and different philosophies on tactics to report news and what-not, and then there are hard rules on the language used to report it. Which is more important in communicating facts, ideas and opinions to the masses? When we talk about media – the medium – we are also talking about language. Language and terminology is the most fundamental medium.
This tells us two things: reporters actually refer to the AP Style Guide (or other such guides), and the AP (and perhaps other style-shapers) for some reason between the years 2005 and 2011 decided to begin addressing Muhammad by the reverential Prophet Muhammad, as a rule. Why the shift? A concerted effort to pay reverence to Islam? An unspoken but strongly perceived pressure that Islam and Muhammad had been overly denigrated through the years? Understanding the reasons for the shift might provide insight into the machinations of the part of the sausage-making process of journalism that is even less well-understood than the other journalistic sausage-making processes (sourcing, quote approval, pitch approval, etc.).
If you have access to a copy the 2010 AP Style Guide, please copy the entry for “Muhammad” in comments.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Why do many Muslims call their son Muhammad?! Isn’t that blasphemy? I mean, that is the main reason people refer to Prophet Muhammad. If 20% of all boys in Marrakesh, Cairo and Amman were called Adolf, it would be necessary to refer to Adolf the Fuehrer.
Why did the fruit loops at AP start using the more reverential wording? It’s a combination of Stockholm Syndrome, cocktail circuit status whoring, and spitefulness against the wrong kinds of white people.
30% Stockholm Syndrome
80% cocktail circuit status whoring
17% spitefulness against the wrong kinds of white people.
3, not 30
Chuck:
Just curious, but you still live at/near your alma mater despite graduating from there at least 5 years ago? Are you originally from the area and just decided to stay or was it just basic inertia?
Does the fact that Muhammad is one of the most popular first names in world have something to do with it?
“According to the sixth edition of The Columbia Encyclopedia (2000), Muhammad is the most common given name in the world, including variations.[2] It is estimated that more than 150 million men and boys in the world bear the name Muhammad.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_(name)
I don’t get why certain cultures take names of very religiously revered people (e.g. Islamic cultures and Muhammed and Hispanic cultures and Jesus), while others don’t. I know that many names came into fashion from religion and powerful people, but those two examples confuse me.
You answered your own question, there. Nobody refers to “The Lord Jesus Christ” to avoid confusion with a million guys named Jesus in Mexico. They are outright genuflecting to the sand niggers.
interesting. seriously, thanks for this
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/10/3802097/memo-to-gop-demography-is-destiny.html
Anti-Racist can you tell Women of Color how to promote Justice to white females. Your mind should not go too waste Soldier.
The radical liberationist hates Jesus Christ as empirical evidence of Supremacy, i.e., the Perfect Man, and loves Muhammad because he was radically autonomous and worshiped a radically autonomous god (completely and utterly unknowable and unpredictable). This goes the same for the jihadist and the self-annihilating white liberationist.
The reverence is evidence of the sharing of a fundamental belief in radical liberation (read: escape from “white Supremacy”).
@anti-racist I agree. On its own, the white USA is done for, unless they rid themselves of their elderly by euthanasia. But in other countries, the median age is rising, too. A religion that allows for euthanasia, like mine, needs to be implemented.
Oogenhand,
We already have two self-annihilating religions. They’re called Islam and Liberalism.
Pingback: AP Style Book and Muhammad « Gucci Little Piggy