satanellus wrote:
A few year's ago I found a cheap camera with "Jihad" written on it. I asked a teacher surpervising a school excursion if it belonged to one of her students. She thanked me and called out "Jihad" and one the children responded.
Given that my workplace would often attract schools with a significant Muslim enrollment, I was surprised when it was a blond-haired, blue-eyed, very Anglo-looking kid who owned the camera.
I'm not sure what (or if) his parents were thinking when they named him. Did they just like how Jihad sounded phonetically without any understanding of the word's meanings? Were they simply ignorant?
I can only imagine this child may have some difficulties traveling on a passport with that name.
I don't know why a non-Arab/non-Muslim would be named "Jihad" unless the parents are trying to make some sort of statement of solidarity with the Ummah (the worldwide community of Muslims). Kind of foolish to do so here in the West at least until we here in
Dar al-Harb ( variously, the Land of War, land of the unbelievers or land of the infidels) come to reside in
Dar al-Islam (Land of Islam, where the Muslims rule). ;-)
I've also had several ethnic Arab airline employees of mine in the past whose formal first names were "Jihad" and all them were fun-loving dudes. :-) It's kind of like us naming our kids Johnny in that regard. Same for Osama (common in parts of the M.E.) and Mohammed (way, way common).
Generally, they Americanized their names to "Jimmy" (for "Jihad"), "Sammy" (for "Osama") and "Mike" or "Moe" for "Mohammed." And they were happy to save their money up for a shiny new Corvette, gold chains and a nice house in the suburbs with an in-ground pool in the backyard. LOL!
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."